Treasure Hunt - Deathranger.com

OFFICIAL GAME ADVENTURE
An Adventure for 4-6 Characters Levels 0-1
TREASURE
HUNT
by Aaron Allston
TABLE OF CONTENTS
CREDITS
Editor: Steve Winter
Cover Artist: Jeff Easley
Interior Artist: Stephen Fabian
Cartographers: David S. LaForce, Stephen D.
Sullivan, Bill Reuter, Stephanie Tabat
Typographer: Kim Lindau
Distributed to the book trade in the United States by Random House Inc. and in Canada by Random House of Canada, Ltd. Distributed to the toy and hobby trade by
regional distributors. Distributed in the United Kingdom
by TSR UK Ltd.
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©
Copyright 1986 TSR Inc. All Rights Reserved.
This product is protected under the copyright laws of the
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Game Questions,” at the Address below:
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53147
PLAYERS’ INTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
DUNGEON MASTER’S INTRODUCTION
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EPISODE ONE: SEA AND STORM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
After the Crash . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Hafkris . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
The Galley . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Experience . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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EPISODE TWO: BATTLE ON THE HILL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
First Impressions of the Island . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Fight in the Ravine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
The Orcs and Goblins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
The Old Man’s Story . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Experience . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
EPISODE THREE: TEMPLE OF
Inside the Temple . . . .
Enter the Goddess . . . .
Later That Same Night . .
Experience . . . . . . . .
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GODDESS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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EPISODE FOUR: MANOR OF THE SEA KING . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Getting Into the Manor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Use of Random Encounters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Treasures Found in the Manor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
On the Passage of Time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Experience and Character Class . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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EPISODE FIVE: INTO THE CATACOMBS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 6
On the Passage of Time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 8
Experience . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
PRODUCTS
TSR, Inc.
OF
YOUR
IMAGINATION™
EPISODE SIX: BREAK-IN .
Royal Greetings . . . .
Destruction of the Island
Epilogue . . . . . . . .
Experience . . . . . . .
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APPENDIX 1: IF THINGS GO WRONG . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
APPENDIX 2: THE KORINN ARCHIPELAGO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Printed in the U.S.A.
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PLAYER AND DUNGEON MASTER AIDS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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central pullout
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Treasure Hunt is an AD&D® adventure for
a Dungeon Master and four to six 0-level characters. That’s right: 0-level.
When you start off a character in an AD&D
game, you begin at 1st level—acolyte, veteran, prestidigitator, rogue, etc. The game
presumes your character has had some prior
experience in warfare or adventure. Perhaps
his “experience” has only been training by a
superior.
In this adventure, you don’t even have the
slight edge that training gave you, the edge
over the common man. In Treasure Hunt,
your character is the common man. To survive
the adventure, he’ll have to become an uncommon man — you’ll have to use your wits,
survive the odds, and stay alive long enough
to earn some experience and begin developing
the abilities of the true adventurer.
And, once you’ve started developing those
abilities, you’ll have to choose the path your
character will be taking for the rest of his adventuring career — will he be a fighting man,
a magic user, devotee of a god or goddess, or a
dextrous picker of pockets and pilferer of
goods? Your beginning character abilities will
show you the fields where he would be best
employed, but your choice of character class
will be determined by your actions in the
course of the adventure and the tendencies
you show in the course of the scenarios.
To the Beginning Player
If you’ve never before played an
ADVANCED DUNGEONS & DRAGONS®
game, don’t worry — Treasure Hunt will be
easier for you than other adventures, not
harder.
You won’t have to worry about complicated
decisions concerning choice of weapons,
spells, deity to worship, and so on. You’re just
a normal man or woman, suddenly caught up
into a bizarre, unpredictable, and dangerous
situation. Just react to the situations you come
across as a real person would, and let the
Dungeon Master tell you how to translate your
wishes into the game.
Creating Your Characters
It’s time to create your characters. If you’d
like to get a preview of the area of your characters’ origin before you create the character,
skip down to “The Korinn Archipelago” in
this Players’ Introduction.
Abilities
Your Dungeon Master will tell you how to
roll up your character’s abilities. Because your
character, starting out at 0 level, is beginning
play with fewer abilities than practically any
other type of beginning character, we recommend the Dungeon Master choose one of the
2
four methods under “Creating the Player
Character” in the Dungeon Masters Guide—
Method 1 tends to work best for this adventure.
Character Race
Your character can belong to any race permitted by the Players Handbook, provided he
meets all the Ability requirements of the race.
Humans are the most common race in the
Korinn Archipelago, but there are also seagoing elves, half-elves, and half-orcs in the region, as well as dwarf and gnome craftsmen
and halfling merchants ashore.
Character Class
You do not choose a character class at this
time. As mentioned, your character’s actions
and preferences in the course of the adventure
will determine what class he becomes.
If you were allowed to assign your rolled
scores to the abilities you wanted, you could
easily have arranged them with a particular
character class in mind. For example, you
might have put your two high scores in
Strength and Constitution, hoping to be a superior fighter.
Well, think about that again. You might be
blocking yourself off from some entertaining
options in the adventure. Why not assign
those high scores to Strength and Dexterity, so
your character can become a nimble fighter or
a powerful thief, or perhaps an assassin? Why
not put them into Strength and Wisdom in
order to let you choose between crafty fighter
and militant cleric? Don’t limit your options,
leave yourself room to explore them.
Alignment
Do not choose your character alignment
yet. Your character is neutral for the time being. In the course of the adventure, the
Dungeon Master will watch how your character acts and behaves, compare that with your
preference at the time your character achieves
1st level, and assign you an alignment based
on those factors. If you’ve already decided you
wish to have, for example, a chaotic good
character, then you should conduct your character in that manner in the course of the adventure until it becomes finalized when he
takes his 1st level.
Hit Points
Roll 1d6 for hit points. The Dungeon Master, if he wishes, may allow you to roll the die
three times and take the best roll as your hit
points score; alternately, he may let you start
out with six hit points, not bothering to roll.
Either one of these choices is a good idea, as
you need all the help you can get in the early
part of the adventure.
Languages
Your character speaks the common tongue
If he is of a semi-human race, he (naturally)
also speaks the tongue of that race, as described under “Character Languages” in the
Players Handbook.
Your character will not learn his alignment
tongue until long after the adventure is over.
He’ll know which language it will be once his
alignment is fixed, when he becomes a 1st
level character, but won’t actually learn the
language in the course of the adventure.
While your character might be bright
enough to learn additional languages (see the
appropriate notes under Intelligence in the
“Abilities” section of the P1ayers Handbook),
he doesn’t know them yet.
Secondary Skills
Under “Creating the Player Character” in
the Dungeon Masters Guide there is a subsection entitled “Player Character NonProfessional Skills.” You should consult this
section and then choose (or roll, if you or the
Dungeon Master prefers) for your character’s
secondary skill.
While possession of a secondary skill won’t
necessarily help you in the adventure’s course,
it certainly can’t hurt. Also, it provides you
with some insight into your character’s background (or at least his current occupation).
And, who knows? Clever use of a secondary
skill might get you out of trouble or save your
character’s life in the adventure.
The Dungeon Master is within his rights to
forbid any particular skill, and will probably
wish to if everyone is taking the same one or
two skills.
Money and Equipment
For reasons that will be clear in a minute,
you don’t need to set your character up with
any money or equipment. The Dungeon Master will explain the situation to you when everyone is ready to begin.
That’s Your Character
To finish off your character sheet, note on it
that your character has -500 (that’s negative
five hundred) experience points. (Once your
character acquires enough experience to reach
0, he’ll become a 1st level character and have
to choose alignment and class.)
Your character, once you give him a name,
is complete. It’s time to start the show.
Quick Character Creation
If all that is too much work, which it certainly could be for beginning players, we have
included (in the center section of the adven-
ture) six pregenerated player characters. If
you’d prefer to save yourself some work, ask
the Dungeon Master if you can see these characters and use one as your own.
The Korinn Archipelago
Your character is from the Korinn Archipelago, a peaceful trading and fishing area, a
string of islands extending far out into the
western sea.
The Archipelago contains hundreds of islands, some enormous, some too small to see
on the map. And you do have a map, which
the Dungeon Master will give you — not that
you need it, you know the waters by heart.
The area, which was sparsely inhabited in
times past, was settled about a hundred years
ago by colonists from far to the south. They
were led by a great seaman named Viledel.
Viledel, never the subtlest of men, made as
his base one of the westernmost of the Islands,
in the area most thickly prowled by pirates
and corsairs, and began his campaign of
smashing piracy wherever he found it. His followers set up settlements and quickly spread
further and further west, into the larger islands closer to civilized nations.
Viledel, who was known as the Sea King
throughout his life, died 60 years ago when a
pirate raid crushed his island defenses and
overran his home. Since then, the archipelago
has had no central government, but has broken into a hundred petty island nations. Most
islands and cities get along quite well, knowing the advantages to be gained through
peaceful trade.
Piracy has increased in the last 60 years.
concentrated in the westernmost of the chain’s
islands, but pirates no longer rule the seas.
They prey upon the merchants like parasites
instead of sharks. However, the further west
you sail, the greater the risk is of running into
pirate ships, and some particularly bold buccaneers sail deep into civilized eastern areas
for the rich pickings there.
Your character is from the Archipelago,
from whichever island you choose, a worker in
whichever profession you rolled or decided
upon.
If you have any detailed questions about
life in the archipelago, ask the Dungeon
Master — after he’s had time to read his own
information on the Korinn area.
3
This Dungeon Master’s Introduction is
written with the first-time DM in mind — if
you’re a more experienced DM, you’ll find
that this introduction explains, in great detail,
things that are now second nature to you. Bear
with us.
Basic Plot of the Adventure
In Treasure Hunt, the player characters have
been kidnapped from their homes by slavers,
and are being sailed toward one of the pirate
strongholds of the archipelago.
A sudden storm at sea catches the pirate
ship, sending it off-course, washing most of
the crew overboard, and eventually crashing it
upon the shores of the island once ruled by
Viledel, the Sea King. The characters have the
opportunity to escape or defeat the surviving
pirates.
Once they’ve escaped or defeated their captor, they find that the island they’ve landed
upon is now the battleground for two forces:
enemy seagoing tribes of orcs and goblins who
are fighting for the right to take this island as
their new stronghold.
Mid-adventure, they’ll also learn that the
goddess of the island is furious at the desecration visited on her temple by the orcs and goblins. She’s decided to wipe the island off the
fate of the earth. She’ll give the characters
some time to escape, but she won’t extend her
time limit for them.
The characters have to survive the elements,
the battles raging between orcs and goblins,
and the unnatural hazards of the island, find
out how to escape, and leave before the goddess destroys the island. In the course of this,
the characters will be earning experience and
eventually reaching 1st level, choosing their
character classes and alignments at that time.
Arrangement of the Adventure
“Episode One: Sea and Storm” informs the
characters of their plight — they’ve been captured, stripped of weapons and goods, and
chained in the hold of a pirate vessel. The ship
crashes upon the shore of the Sea King’s island. The prisoners must either defeat or escape the one surviving pirate. Once free, they
will realize that they need better shelter than
the wrecked ship if they're to survive the elements this night.
In “Episode Two: Battle on the Hill,” the
characters stumble across a battle between orcs
and goblins. They can defeat both forces by
clever use of surrounding terrain, or can wait
until both forces are worn down almost to
nothing before attacking. Among the “loot”
held by the orcs and goblins is an old human
man, a prisoner of the goblins, who knows
where shelter is to be found.
“Episode Three: Temple of the Goddess”
4
has characters reaching a temple near the Sea
King’s old manor. While within the temple,
the characters have an encounter with the
goddess. She displays her divine wrath and
announces the doom of the island.
In “Episode Four: Manor of the Sea King,”
the old man says there are catacombs below
the Sea King’s manor, catacombs with treasure and a boat left as grave-goods. But to get
to the catacombs, the characters must get
through the manor, which is where the orc
goblin conflict is heaviest.
“Episode Five: Into the Catacombs” gets
the characters into those catacombs — but the
old man has actually led them into a trap. He
was merely determined to seal the catacombs
off so that the invaders could not pilfer them,
and has maneuvered the player characters into
returning him there. He then tries to kill the
characters so they won’t rob the catacombs.
The characters have to survive his traps and his
surprises long enough to find the promised
treasure and boat.
“Episode Six: Break-In” reveals that the
orcs and goblins have found the entrance after
all, and have broken into the catacombs. In
this episode of the adventure the characters
must deal with intruding orcs and goblins
while trying to escape. At the episode’s end,
the goddess’ wrath is visited on the island.
During the adventure, the characters can
find magical objects which allow them to feel
what it’s like to have the abilities of some of
the various character classes. They’ll be confronted with situations which allow them to
try to utilize the skills of different classes. By
the time they reach 0 experience points they
should have decided their character classes
and alignments.
Also in this rulebook are the following sections and items:
“Appendix 1: If Things Go Wrong” talks
about what you can do to cope with clever
character improvisations, or to get the adventure back on course when things are totally
screwed up.
“Appendix 2: The Korinn Archipelago”
describes the island chain in greater detail
than in the Players’ Introduction.
Included in the pull-out section of the adventure are eight characters (the murderous
old man, an NPC merchant’s daughter who
was on the slave ship, and six player characters
to use if players don’t wish to generate new
characters); and four Dungeon Master maps
(the island, the temple, the manor, and the
catacombs). On the adventure’s covers are the
players’ maps: The archipelago map which
they know by heart, and the island, temple,
manor, and catacombs maps crudely drawn by
the old man.
The Characters
There are some things you should know
about the 0 level player characters.
Secondary Skills
The characters have secondary skills. Don’t
encourage the players to make heavy use of
those skills, but if they come up with clever
and pertinent uses for those skills, you should
reward them with critical or even spectacular
success with the things they’re attempting.
For example, a character who is a miner
might reasonably expect to know which support beams in the catacombs can be broken to
cause a sudden cave-in. A trapper/furrier with
enough time and opportunity could rig snare
traps and other tricks in order to capture and
harrass his enemies.
Don’t allow the players to abuse these
skills. A trapper cannot rig a snare with the
same speed a charging orc can swing a sword.
And, while the first snare he placed might
have had spectacular success, the orcs will be
watching for the second one. To be effective,
he must think up and explain a new trap each
time.
Weapon Proficiencies
Zero-level characters all know how to use
one weapon. Before your adventure gets underway, have each player choose his character’s
weapon proficiency. (Weapon proficiency is
explained under “Weapons” in the Players
Handbook). A player may only choose dagger,
quarterstaff, or dart. Tell the player to write
his character’s weapon proficiency on the character sheet.
If, in the course of the adventure, a character picks up a weapon and states that he’s going to try to learn to use it, let him. For
simplicity’s sake, let’s assume that, while
these characters are in their “state of grace”
and learn things speedily, they can learn a
weapon proficiency after using the weapon in
two combats. A character can learn no more
than three extra weapon proficiencies.
Tell the character he should swing the
weapon around for a while, get used to its heft
and characteristics, and that after a couple of
combats in which he uses the weapon, he will
have a proficiency with it.
The characters are not limited to dagger,
staff and dart after they enter the adventure
but, again, the choice of the weapons they
learn can limit their character class choices.
If a character tries to learn more weapons
during the course of the adventure he starts
limiting the number of character classes he
can choose. For instance, a 1st level magicuser can only have one weapon proficiency. If
the 0 level character learns a second weapon
before taking 1st level, he can therefore not be
a magic-user when he reaches 1st level. That’s
how it works. Read the pertinent section of
the Players Handbook for more information
on this.
Non-Magical Special Abilities
Several character classes have special abilities. These abilities break down roughly into
non-magical and magical abilities: The thief’s
wall-climbing talent can be considered nonmagical, while the paladin’s ability to detect
evil is effectively magical.
Whenever a player-character in this adventure wishes, he may try to utilize one of the
non-magical special abilities. These abilities
include:
Assassinate (assassin),
Backstab (thief),
Climb Walls (thief),
Disguise (assassin),
Find/Remove Traps (thief),
Hear Noise (thief),
Hide in Shadows (thief),
Move Silently (thief),
Open Locks (thief),
Pick Pockets (thief),
Track (ranger).
Whenever a character wishes to try to utilize
one of these skills, let him. Give the character a
chance to do it at 10% below that of a 1st level
character of the appropriate class. Whether he
succeeds or fails, the next time he tries, let him
try at 5% below the listed 1st level chance. The
third time and subsequent times, give him the
1st level chance to succeed.
The ranger abilities of extra damage to humanoids and decreased chance to be surprised
cannot be attempted, nor can the monk’s extra damage for barehanded combat.
The player characters cannot try to perform
the magical special abilities of various character classes — turning undead, laying on of the
hands, etc.—until they’ve chosen their character classes upon reaching 1st level.
Achieving 1st Level
When you’re ready to begin play, you
should use the character tracking forms in the
center of the booklet; use one form for each
character. (Six of these forms are already filled
out for the pregenerated characters.)
In the course of the adventure, whenever a
character tries to perform an action which is
basically class-related, you should take note of
it on the form. Keep things simple—when the
character tries to climb a wall, place one check
mark beside “Thief.” When, later, he tries to
move silently, place another check mark beside “Thief.” When he tries to use a sword in
combat, since magic-users and clerics cannot
do this, you place a minus sign beside “MagicUser” and “Cleric.”
If a character has learned a new weapon proficiency, note it on the tracking form and keep
in mind which classes he can no longer be.
This way, you can keep accurate and simple
track of the character’s character class “leanings.”
Alignment Tendencies
Keep track of the characters’ actions and reactions during the adventure. Whenever a
character performs an action that is of a particular alignment, note that action on the tracking form.
Protecting your allies and making friends
are not alignment activities — they’re human
nature. However, backstabbing is an action of
neutral or evil intent. An unwillingness to kill
someone except in a fair fight is lawful. Risking your own life to save someone else when
the odds are against you is a good action.
Working hard to cause someone grief is an evil
action.
Magical Experimentation
Whenever a character uses one of the magical abilities from the magical objects to be
found, make note of it. This activity should
lead to a check mark beside the character class
the magic is pertinent to.
If a character really sits down with the one
magical book to be found in the course of the
adventure and gives it serious study, this is a
definite magic-user activity and he receives
checks by “Magic-User” on the tracking
form—one check mark for each hour he studies.
Assigning Experience
Because the characters are so frail and need
all the help they can get, you’ll be assigning
them their experience as often as is convenient
— at least at the end of every episode in the
adventure. You’ll not only assign experience
for monsters slain at that time, you should assign experience for treasure accumulated,
which normally has to wait until the treasure is
safe at the character’s home.
Making the Choice
Eventually, the characters will start reaching
0 experience points and will have to take their
character classes and alignments.
Look over each character’s notes on the
tracking form and make an estimate of which
class and alignment you think is most appropriate to him. Then speak to him, privately,
and tell him what you think—such as,
“You’ve been behaving, for the most part, as
a chaotic-good fighter; do you have any problem with that?”
If not, then the choice is made. If the player
does have a differing opinion, have him explain his thinking. If it’s reasonable and does
not contradict the way the character has been
acting, let him have it his way.
If, however, he’s completely off-base, in
your estimation . . . well, your opinion is final one. This is most likely to occur in the
choice of alignment, and can affect class If a
character was trying to become a paladin but
engaged in chaotic behavior patterns all the
time, you’re within your rights to say he’s a
chaotic good fighter.
Since your choice may not match your players’, you should explain to the players before
play begins that you’re going to be the ultimate authority on what the character’s eventual class and alignment are, modified by the
character’s behavior and actions, of course.
Hit Points
When the character’s new class is chosen,
reroll his hit points. If the new roll is lower
than the original roll, let him keep the original roll.
Magic-users, illusionists, thieves and assassins do not reroll.
Multi-Class Characters
Before the adventure begins, you should
tell your players that these characters will not
have the option to become multi-class characters. They may choose the special character
classes such as paladin and illusionist, assuming they meet all the requirements of the
class. (A multi-class character would not be
limited very much by his behavior during the
adventure, and so should not be permitted in
this adventure.)
Pregenerated Characters
If your players don’t have time, opportunity, or experience enough to create their own
characters, there are player characters already
created and ready to be handed out. Pull
them out of the book, cut them apart, and
keep Keestake and Melisana — they are NPCs
and the players shouldn’t see them
Each pregenerated character has been given
two names, the first name masculine, the second feminine. The player can decided if the
character is male or female.
The physical descriptions of the characters
are up to the players.
The ages listed may not match the range of
ages given for characters in the Dungeon Masters Guide once they’ve reached 1st level and
chosen their classes. (For instance, if a character chooses to be an illusionist but is only 19,
this doesn’t match the normal range of ages
for illusionist characters.) Don’t let it bother
you; these characters are simply exceptions to
the rule. Any character created at 1st level or
above must keep to the rules given in the
Dungeon Masters Guide.
5
First things first: explain to the players that
their characters have been captured by slavers
who took away all their interesting gear when
they were captured. The characters are left
with their breeches and tunics, or robes, and
nothing else — no boots, no belts, no cloaks,
no hats, no money or weapons or special gear.
Now, describe to them the following situation:
Separately and collectively, you’ve all
fallen into the hands of pirate slavers
Most of you remember it this way: You
were walking in the countryside near your
homes, strolling home from the tavern after a night’s drinking, walking down to the
river to fetch some water, or gone to visit
some lass or lad in neighboring village.
And, suddenly, you heard a thrashing in
the underbrush around you, and before
you could turn you felt a whale of a blow to
the back of your head, and everything
went black.
When you awoke, you were in the dark,
tiny, stinking hold of the pirate galley,
shackled by your wrists to the sturdy beams
of the slave bunks, bunks stacked like
cordwood. There were about 40 other captured folk of the archipelago there.
You were sick from the blow to your
head and from the tossing of the ship,
from the revolting gruel the slaver pirates
occasionally fed you, and from the knowledge that you were bound for one of the
western slave ports, never again to see your
own home. Mockingly, the keys to your
shackles were hung from a hook right by
the hatch to the deck, only 5 or 6 feet from
the lot of you. They might as well be miles
away.
A few days after you woke up, the ship
was hit by a squall, which turned, after
half a day of tossing and rolling, into a fullfledged storm which blasted spray and
curses into the hold every time the hatch
above was opened. Your jailer, a man
named Hafkris — maybe a half-orc, it was
hard to tell under all that grime and walrus
ugliness—brought about half the shackled
slaves abovedecks to man the oars vacated
by sailors washed overboard The storm
continued on another day, and Hafkris
took another one-fourth of the slave cargo
abovedecks He looked worried.
That was yesterday. You haven’t seen
any of the pirates or the slaves since then,
and you haven’t been fed. Early today, the
shouting and cracking whips indicating
that rowers were being kept in line finally
faded away to nothing.
Right now, as you’re waiting for some
sign of life from abovedecks, there’s an
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enormous crash — a grating, grinding noise
and horrible shuddering of the ship
around you as it runs aground. Abovedecks, there’s the sound of snapping spars
and a great crash on the deck which you
know must be the mast coming down.
You’re all thrown toward the bow, but are
still held fast by your shackles and suffer
more bruises to your wrists.
The bow of the galley is shattered by the
impact, and as the galley grinds to a halt,
the bow is torn away entirely, letting in a
ferocious blast of numbingly-cold air and
ram; the port side of the galley is laid open
by a huge boulder that the galley has
ground against
A moment later, there’s once again only
the sound of wind and pounding surf. Out
the open bow, you can see a section of rainpounded beach; you seem to have run
aground where a cliff face meets a cove
beach.
Questions from the Characters
During the narration, the players may wish
to interrupt—to ask questions, to try to break
their chains with brute strength or pick them,
to converse with one another, etc.
Let them. Answer the questions to which
they can reasonably be expected to find answers Let them converse with Hafkris if the)
really feel like dealing with an odious, obnoxious, and psychotic slaver pirate. He will let
them know in no uncertain terms that he is in
charge of the “meat” or “walking cargo”—
that is, the captured player characters and
NPCs. If one of the characters mouths off to
him, Hafkris will take off his belt and lash the
character repeatedly, doing a total of 2 hit
points of damage to the character before leaving off. He tells the characters they are bound
for Westhaven, the “greatest pirate city in the
world,” where they will be sold as slaves.
They can’t break their chains. The shackles
were, after all, designed to hold people, even
the strongest of people. (And the characters
are chained to their bunks in such a way that
they can’t get any leverage against the chains,
so even a vaunted 18/00 Strength is
irrelevant — no leverage, no strength.)
Nor can they pick their chains The lack of
lock picks, the darkness of the hold, and their
inability to bring their hands together utterly
prevent this
They can talk with one another. After the
second group of slaves is taken away, the only
characters left in the hold are all the player
characters and one NPC — Melisana, who describes herself as the daughter of Melkeras, a
wealthy merchant of the large Island of Ven-
tris. (For more about Melisana, read ahead in
this episode.)
As soon as you can dispose of the questions,
continue on with the narration until you’ve
ended it.
After the Crash
Immediately after the crash, the characters
are going to be trying their chains to see if any
of their bunks are damaged enough for them
to break free.
The answer is yes: one character’s bunk was
buckled by the impact with the boulder, and
he can (after a few moments of pulling) yank
his chains free of his bunk. The shackles and
about 8 inches of chain still dangle from his
wrists. (To decide which character is free, either roll 1d6 for each character and take the
highest roller, or choose the most peaceable
and physically unthrcatcning character, because he might not be seeing as much action
later as the huskier characters: or use Melisana, to give the characters some reason to be
grateful to her.)
The free character can take some blocks of
wood and spend about 45 minutes prying the
others free; however, it’s much faster, and easier just to grab that ring of keys and free the
rest. (If the characters don’t think of it, let
Melisana come up with the idea — but give
them enough time to think of it themselves.)
The ring of keys is still hanging on its hook.
Interior of the Hold
If the characters look around the hold for
weapons or gear, they find very little. They
can find some pieces of wood that are basically
equivalent to clubs (and remember that, since
most don’t have proficiency with a club, they
will be striking with a non-proficiency penalty. Give them a flat -4 non-proficiency penalty; that may get worse or better later on,
when they’ve chosen a character class).
Their chains can be used as weapons, but
they are not very good ones, doing as much
damage as a dart (1-3, 1-2).
There are no blankets in the hold. The characters are wearing all of their clothing, their
boots and cloaks are long gone, taken by the
slavers.
The slave hold runs about two-thirds of the
length of the galley, from the bow to about
one-third of the way to the stern. One hatch
leads to the deck. If they try it, it is immovable
(they won’t know it immediately, but the
mast has fallen across it). The only other exit is
the huge hole torn open at the bow.
Outside the Galley
Characters who walk to the hole in the galley to look around will be met first of all with a
renewed blast of bone-chillingly cold air and
driving rain. When they look outside, they see
a gray world.
The ship ran aground on a beach. On this
side of the beach, craggy rocks and cliffs rise
40 or 50 feet. The cliff descends as it continues
down the beach, until it’s no more than a line
of rocks a few feet high at the far end.
You, the DM, can look at the Dungeon
Master’s map of the island to see the precise
point where the galley has run aground.
The sky is blackly overcast, but the characters will think it’s still daytime. The wind is
sharp and fierce, blowing rain droplets so hard
that they seem like hailstones.
And, out there on the beach, perhaps 30
feet from the galley, staggering up and down
the beach, is Hafkris. He has his broadsword
at his side; he’s marching up and down the
beach like a soldier on parade, singing grotesque sailor-songs; the player characters can
hear snatches of the songs whenever the wind
shifts in their direction. He can’t see the characters while they are in the darkness of the
hold, but if they move out onto the sands of
the beach he will be able to spot them instantly.
Hafkris
Let the characters discuss among themselves
what they wish to do about Hafkris. Hafkris,
from his attitude, has shown them that he
thinks of them as meat to be sold—he won’t
be responsive to offers of common-sense cooperation. He will either shackle them again or
kill them. Tell the players this if they discuss
talking to Hafkris.
The characters should arrive at the conclusion that they must either kill him, capture
him, or flee from him. All these approaches
are equally worthwhile.
Hafkris’s State of Mind
Right now, Hafkris is drunk out of his
mind, wandering up and down the beach simply to be off the galley that failed him and his
companions, and trying to figure out what to
do — a difficult task for one of his limited
mental abilities.
Hafkris is the sole survivor of the galley’s
crew. The captain was a complete lunatic, sailing so far from land in the storm season; the
captain was the last to go, after all the other
pirates had been washed overboard, after all
the slaves brought up to man the oars were
washed overboard. The captain wasn’t washed
overboard: Hafkris threw him. The murder
doesn’t bother him in the least; he simply
wishes he’d done it before the captain managed to strand Hafkris on this gods-forsaken
rock so far from Westhaven
Hafkris has managed to keep from going
completely crazy these last two days by getting
thoroughly drunk. Now that he’s on land, he
intends to wander around on the beach until
he gets his land legs again (sobers up, rather).
That will be a couple of hours. At that time,
he climbs back up into the galley, gets his
crossbow, and checks out the hold to see how
many of the walking cargo survived. Once he
is sure that the slaves are still safely chained in
place, he begins exploring to see where they
ran aground and to find some shelter.
Attacking Hafkris
If the characters decide to attack Hafkris,
they must decide how to do it. They may lure
him into the cargo bay and bash him over the
head when he enters They may charge out in
a pack and try to bring him down. Let them
decide how to go about it.
After a few more minutes of observation,
they will be able to tell that he is drunk to the
gills. This should prompt them to attack or
ambush him quickly, as it would be easier to
overpower him when he is drunk. If they
choose not to do so during the time he walks
up and down the beach, sobering up, that’s
their choice, but it’s probably not a good one.
If they decide to ambush him or attack him
before he’s sobered up, find out exactly how
they want to go about it; set up the surroundings and terrain where they’ve decided to attack him; and run the combat through until
one side or the other is defeated. Remember
to use the “to hit” penalty that Hafkris suffers
from being drunk; it’s given below, under
“Hafkris,” with his character stats.
If the characters wait until he’s sober, he
clambers up into the galley again, walks to the
stern hold, retrieves his crossbow, and descends into the hold through the hole in the
hull. They could ambush him at this point,
too, but he’s cold sober and armed with a
crossbow in addition to his sword, so it’s not
the best choice of times to attack.
If Hafkris is Defeated
If the characters kill Hafkris when they attack, they have accomplished their first kill.
They have his gear, listed below under
“Hafkris,” and a rather ugly corpse. They also
can study the galley at their leisure.
If they attack to subdue and capture him
alive, he is surly but not insulting — he would
rather be alive than dead — and is willing to
tell them what happened to the pirates and
the other slaves. He knows no more about this
place than the player characters do.
If the Characters are Defeated
If the characters are defeated by Hafkris
(but not all killed), Hafkris chains the surviving characters back to their bunks, grabs the
ring of keys, and departs on his search for shel-
ter and information
Hafkris will be gone for quite some time —
long enough for some other player character
(you determine who, randomly) to gradually
pry his chains loose of his bunk. This character’s bunk had been damaged, but not as severely as the other one, meaning it takes him
at least an hour of straining, but he can indeed
free himself.
Once free, the character can use other
blocks of wood to pry the other surviving characters free.
Once these characters are all free, they can
continue doing as the wished to. Give the
“When Things Go Wrong” appendix a quick
look to find out how you can introduce new
player characters into the adventure (to replace those that might have died in the attack
on Hafkris) and continue on with “The Galley,” below.
Hafkris
Hafkris is a half-orc, 1st level fighter with
unexceptional abilities. His combat statistics
are;
AC 6; HD 1 (hp 8); MV 9”; #AT 1; Dmg
2-8/2-7; THAC0 20; AL NE.
Languages: Common, NE.
Secondary skill: sailor.
Weapon Proficiencies: sword, dagger, crossbow, pike.
Equipment: studded leather, broadsword,
dagger; (after reaching stern hold) heavy
crossbow, 10 quarrels
While he’s drunk, Hafkris has a -3 penalty
“to hit” whenever he attacks — in effect, his
THAC0 is 23 while he’s drunk For every 40
minutes the characters wait, his THAC0 drops
by 1 until he reaches his normal 20 after two
hours.
If he’s defeated, of course, the player characters can salvage his equipment. If they forget to, don’t remind them (after all, their
characters are supposed to be new at this).
Fleeing Hafkris
If the characters choose to wait until they
have a chance to “make a break for it,” their
chance will eventually come.
Once Hafkris has sobered sufficiently, as
mentioned, he climbs back into the galley and
begins rooting through the stern compartment for his crossbow and quarrels. This takes
a couple of minutes and gives the characters
plenty of time to reach the western edge of the
cove, where they can clamber over the low
rocks and escape.
If the characters do this, go straight to “Melisana” and “Exposure,” below.
If the characters leave the hold but decide
to climb the nearer cliff-face, tell them before
7
they begin that it will take a long time to
climb to the top and to safety: long enough
for Hafkris to finish what he’s doing and spot
them, certainly.
If they decide to do it anyway, Hafkris
emerges from the stern hold with his crossbow, spots the characters before they get halfway up, and shoots at them until they decide
to surrender and descend. He has plenty of arrows in the hold. This will probably lead back
to “If the Characters are Defeated,” above.
The Galley
If the characters do defeat or kill Hafkris,
they have plenty of time and opportunity to
search the galley.
This galley is a typical Korinn Archipelago
galley. It is about 60 feet long, with 10 twoman oar benches down each side. Obviously,
it carries a rowing complement of 40 men plus
a captain and a steersman.
The galley has (had, rather) a single mast.
The sail was furled when the squall hit, and
the mast snapped to come crashing down on
deck mere minutes before the ship ran
aground.
The galley had no forecastle or sterncastle.
Two hatches open into the holds; the forward
hatch, now covered by the fallen mast, opens
into the forward hold (where the player characters were chained) and the aft hatch opens
into a small aft hold.
The Aft Hold
This hold is in no better shape than the forward hold. The collision with the boulders to
starboard tore open a huge part of the galley’s
hull here, and the bottom of the hold is
swamped in sea-water. This hold is still partly
in the water.
There’s not much to be found here — specifically, the following items:
Four broken barrels which have spilled wine
and ale everywhere;
Dozens of sacks of grain, soaked with wine.
ale, seawater, and rainwater, all useless;
Fifty quarrels for Hafkris’s heavy crossbow (40,
if he’s already removed a quiver’s worth);
A heavy crossbow (unless Hafkris has already
removed it);
A chest. In the chest, undamaged, are the
captain’s log (scribed in a written form of
Thieves’ Cant, which none of the players
can read yet); navigational charts (including one indicating the galley’s destination,
a hitherto-unknown pirate stronghold on
the north coast of Pandira Island), and a
book.
The book is a spell book, written in Common, which contains two 1st level spells:
magic missile and sleep. When the characters
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first look at it, the esoteric text won’t make
any sense to them, but they have the feeling
that they could make sense out of it if they
had some time to really read it.
If they continue reading it when they have
some time available, they can be considered to
be studying it, as described in the Dungeon
Master’s Introduction.
Melisana
Once the grim spectre of Hafkris is removed
— either because he’s dead, captured, or left
behind — Melisana introduces herself. She
says she’s Melisana, daughter of Melkeras, a
merchant and merchant guildmaster of the island of Ventris. She says her father would certainly pay a rich reward for her safe return to
Ventris. (How rich? If the characters ask, she
won’t know for sure, but guesses that the reward would be at least a hundred gold pieces
per rescuer.)
More on Melisana, her abilities, and personality can be found on her character sheet in
the center of this adventure book.
Melisana is useful to you, the Dungeon
Master, to be a “DM Voice” character. When
the player characters have missed a tooobvious clue or mental process, Melisana can
provide it. If none of the player characters
took “Sailor” as his secondary skill, so no one
can sail home (if the characters find a boat),
she has the skill.
However, she’s not an adventuresome character and keeps well out of combats and danger.
Exposure
Finally, once Hafkris is defeated (or flees),
the galley is searched (or abandoned), and all
obvious dangers removed, a new threat reveals
itself—slowly, insidiously, and inevitably.
The characters start getting cold. They are
exposed to rain and freezing winds wherever
they happen to be in the galley—neither deck
nor torn-open holds provide much protection
from the blasting rain and cold. So, gradually,
they start to get colder and colder.
Huddling together in the area most protected from wind helps a little, but not much.
The wood of the ship is by now too soaked to
light, assuming the characters could even get
tinder burning under these conditions.
Ultimately, it becomes obvious to even the
slowest of the characters that they will all die if
they spend the rest of the day in the wreck of
this ship. They need real shelter, and soon. (If
the characters can’t add two and two — that is,
they can’t reason “Cold means death, we
must find warmth” — then Melisana will state
the inevitable. This is an example of how she
can act as the “GM Voice.”)
If the characters try to stick it out in the gal-
ley despite all evidence to the impracticality of
it, start assigning them damage, gradually.
For every hour they stay in the galley or outdoors, they sustain one point of damage. In
short, if they stay on the beach for six hours,
they’ll all die of exposure.
Eventually, the characters will all die or they
will leave to scout out some shelter. Once
some or all of the characters leave to look for
shelter, you can progress to the next episode.
Note: There are no caves on the cliffside
which can shelter characters from the elements. Hafkris’s armor is not adequate to protect characters from the elements.
Experience
Award experience immediately for this part
of the adventure — the characters, as we’ve
mentioned, need all the help they can get.
First, an important note: since you don’t
know what class the characters will be taking,
the characters cannot receive any experience
bonus for having a high prime requisite.
Award the characters experience for every
enemy they killed (or captured) and for all
“treasure” they acquired. For this episode:
Hafkris is worth 18 points of experience, divided between the characters who fought him.
Hafkris’s gear is worth 53 points of experience (and 53 gp).
The chest and its charts seem to be worth 1
gp, except for the magic book, which is by itself worth 200 experience points.
Divide all experience among all player characters who were present when the treasure was
obtained or the monster overcome; this way,
for example, if the characters kill or capture
Hafkris, the character who is awarded his armor will not somehow earn more experience
than the character who received only his dagger.
At the end of the last episode, you managed,
by one means or another, to get the player
characters free of Hafkris’s imprisonment.
Now, some or all of the player characters are
scouting around, looking for shelter.
If the characters accomplished the defeat of
Hafkris so efficiently that they didn’t discover
how devastating the weather was, they probably haven’t yet decided to scout around for
shelter. If this is the case, you need to begin
giving them the hints that will lead them on
their search: their fingers and toes are becoming numb; Hafkris’s boots and cloak will help,
yes, but only one character each, and only for
a while. The cold is insidious; being in the galley helps, but not enough; piling up together
against the elements helps, but not enough;
and so on.
If the characters still refuse to move, begin
applying the damage for exposure discussed in
the last episode.
First Impressions of the Island
Once they’ve gotten over the low cliffs on
the western edge of the bay, the characters can
get a look at the island. It’s certainly not a
good look—dim from the overcast skies and
blurred by the rain — but they can make out
some details.
The island is very, very hilly; it’s really just
part of the chain of mountains which forms
the whole Korinn Archipelago, and here a
whole ridge of mountain tops has pushed its
way above the waves of the ocean.
Looking across the island, the characters can
see that the highest and most forbidding hills
are westward, running the entire length of the
island from south to north. Northward is broken terrain, passable but not easy going, while
eastward the terrain seems to flatten out a little bit. However, since it’s still hilly and broken even in that direction, the characters can’t
see any sign of shelter or a human community
in any direction.
There’s not much green to be seen. Except
for some common, practically indestructible
scrub growth, the island seems to be totally
lifeless.
If you, as DM, want to see more of the island, look over the DM’s map of the island
and the map key in the next episode.
Scouting for Shelter
It doesn’t matter which direction the characters take when they’re scouting for shelter:
you’re going to be placing the encounter in
their path, whichever direction they choose.
So let them make their decision based on what
they can see of the island.
If they ask what their secondary skills allow
them to deduce about the probable location
of shelter, tell the characters with sailor skill
the following information:
The prevailing winds for this storm are out
of the northwest. This is storm season, and
most storms blow in out of the northwest. If
there’s a port on this island, it’s likely to be on
the slightly-more-sheltered eastern or southern coast.
If no one has sailor skill, then no character
can receive that hint. If a character outright
asks what direction the storm is blowing in
from, and whether that’s common for storm
season, answer truthfully, but draw no conclusions for him.
As noted, it doesn’t really matter which direction they choose, since you’ll be placing
the encounter directly in their path regardless
of their choice. But if a character does figure
out that east is the direction to explore, give
him 20 extra experience points at the end of
this episode for his cleverness.
Climbing the Hill
Not long after the characters pick a direction and head out, give them the following information:
You’re walking along in the depression between two large hills. After a few minutes
of walking, you become aware of a noise —
a very faint noise, like grunting voices and
steel clanging on steel, barely audible over
the noise of the rain and the wind. It seems
to be coming from your left, beyond the
hill to your left.
If the characters decline to investigate, remind them that “grunting voices” means
people (or at least some sort of creature) and
that people means shelter.
Map Inset
Take a look at the DM’s map of the island.
The inset shows the area where this episode is
taking place.
The inset map shows where the characters
observe the goblin-orc fight.
(A) is the left-hand approach, where the
characters can scramble up over rocks to look
down on the fight; they’d be behind the goblin line.
(B) is the straight approach, where the characters can climb the hillside slope to look
down on the fight; they’d be among the boulders directly above the fight.
(C) is the right-hand approach, where the
characters can scramble up over rocks to look
down on the fight; they’d be behind the orc
line, directly over the old man.
(D) is where characters are when they first
hear the noise of the fight.
(E) is where the orcs and goblins are fight-
ing one another.
As you can see, the characters can try to circumnavigate the hill. The hillside reaches its
lowest approach at points A and C, which are
a couple hundred yards in either direction
along this depression. If the characters choose
to climb at A or C, they will be climbing over
tumbled rocks there. If they prefer, they can
climb the hill where they are, as the slope
seems to be gentler and has fewer boulders
and obstacles, and reach point B, the top of
the hill. Point B is strewn with boulders too,
but here they provide cover for the characters
instead of impeding progress.
From A, B, or C, the characters can see
what’s going on in the ravine below.
Fight in the Ravine
There’s a fight going on in the ravine below
the characters, at E. Relate the following information to the characters.
Below you, there’s a ravine separating this
line of hills from the next ridge. And
there’s a battle going on down there.
It looks like a dozen goblins and half a
dozen orcs going at it pretty fiercely. The
goblins are fighting with bows and spears;
the orcs have axes and polearms, and one
of them appears to have armor, too. Most
of the fighters don’t have any sort of armor, but all of them have cloaks.
About 50 feet behind the line of orcs
there’s someone lying in the ravine. It
looks like a human man, a white-bearded
old man wearing tattered robes. He’s lying
down, twisted over to watch the fight; his
arms are behind his back and look as
though they’ve been tied.
If the characters ask more detailed questions about the battle array, draw them a
crude sketch of the ravine. Place the battle immediately under the top of the hill (point B).
A line of three orcs is fighting the line of
five goblins. Three goblins are standing back
behind their line, waiting to step in and fill up
a hole if one of their companions falls. The
goblins have stationed archers on the ravine
slopes, two a few feet up on each slope.
Two orcs are hanging back, throwing rocks
and knives at the goblin archers and preparing
to step in if an orc on the front line falls. One
orc stands directly behind the front line,
grunting what sounds like orders to the rest.
The goblins on and behind the line are carrying spears and have daggers at their belts.
The goblins on the slopes have bows, quivers
of arrows, and daggers at their belts.
The orcs on the line have battle axes. The
orcs on the flanks have bardiches, but have
9
leaned them across boulders and are fighting
with thrown daggers and rocks. The orc giving
orders has padded armor and a bardiche.
Course of the Battle
If the characters wish, they can just lie there
and watch the battle take its course, though
that approach won’t gain them experience.
Each full turn the characters watch, some of
both forces will fall:
First Turn: Orc on right flank (hit by arrows), one goblin archer on left flank (killed
by daggers), one goblin on line (axe blow; rear
goblin steps up to replace).
Second Turn: Orc on left flank (hit by arrows), second goblin archer on left flank (also
killed by daggers).
10
Third Turn: Orc in center of line (speared),
Orc commander (hit by arrows), two goblins
on line (axe blows; replacements step up from
second line).
Fourth Turn: Orc on line (speared), one
goblin on line (axe blow). Goblin archers
move parallel to the line to get a bead on the
last orc.
Fifth Turn: Last orc (arrow fire), one goblin
on line (axe blow). Remaining five goblins —
three spearmen, two archers — are all
wounded.
That’s how the battle progresses if the characters decide to do nothing about it. Narrate
the progress of the first turn of combat—make
it as colorful as you can — and then ask the
players, “Is there anything you want to do besides watch?” If there is, go on to “Interfering
with the Battle,” below. If there isn’t, narrate
the next turn’s worth of events and ask again
then.
Interfering With the Battle
There are several things the player characters can do in the course of the battle to interfere with it and to gain some glory,
experience, and equipment for themselves, of
course.
Attacking
The characters can attack the goblins and
orcs (or just the goblins, if they wait until the
battle’s over), using weapons taken from
Hafkris. Continue the battle until only one
side (goblin, orc, or player character) is victori-
ous. If the characters are victorious, continue
on to “Scavenging the Bodies,” below. If the
characters are all killed, you can check the
“When Things Go Wrong” appendix and introduce an all-new cast of characters, or just
end the adventure. If the characters are defeated and some surrender rather than be
killed, see “When Things Go Wrong,” to determine what to do about them.
or higher, the goblins have noticed his efforts.
If the goblins notice, one goblin archer fires
on the characters once every other combat
round. The orc/goblin battle will not break
up until one side or the other has won, but the
characters will have to do their sneaking under
the threat of arrow fire, and the goblins will
know what they look like and will come looking for them after the episode is done.
Sneaking
Bouldering
The characters could sneak down the slopes
and rescue the old man. The goblins have
barely noticed him and the orcs are facing
away from him. The characters should have no
problem sneaking down the slope and making
off with him. Have each sneaking character
roll percentile dice; if any character rolls a 75
The nastiest thing that the characters could
do to the goblins and orcs is to sit on top of the
hill, at B, and roll boulders down on top of
the combatants. Don’t suggest this to the
players. If one of the players comes up with it
on his own, fine. Be sure to give him 20 extra
experience points when this episode is done.
If a character asks about the position and
disposition of the boulders at B, tell him that
there are many that are imbedded and many
that seem loose. The whole slope below is littered with them. If he asks if it looks as
though they could start a landslide to kill the
goblins and orcs, give him a cautious yes — it
looks that way, but of course you can’t be sure
until you try it.
The old man is well out of the way of the
rolling boulders.
If the characters choose to dump a landslide
on the fighting forces, tell them to begin making their “Open Doors” rolls, once per combat round. The combat round after the first
one is launched, it rolls into the ravine; the
combat round after that, the goblin archers
start firing on the player characters.
Because each rolling boulder hits others as
it descends, each successful “Open Doors”
roll causes enough rocks to slide to hit one
combatant, causing 2-16 points of damage
(2d8). The first of the non-humans to be hit
will be the goblin archers on the near slopes,
and then damage will progress across the ravine to the far side. The archers there are too
high up to be hit by rolling rocks, and will flee
if all their allies are killed.
The orcs and goblins in the ravine will stick
around until two-thirds of the forces are dead
— and, by then, it’s too late for them, for all
the rocks rolled so far have started the landslide in earnest. The landslide rolls over the
combatants, killing all but the two goblin
archers on the far side.
If the goblin archers on the far side are not
killed by the player characters (with crossbow
fire), they scramble up the far slope and get
away, running straight back to the goblin
headquarters on the island (as described later,
in the map key to the DM’s map of the island). The goblin commander then knows
that there are humans on the island, but it
won’t do him any good.
Unless the player characters are all killed by
archers while trying to accomplish this mission. the boulders strategy will basically be
successful. The characters receive experience
based on how many of the combatants they
killed; it’s in their best interests to “start the
ball rolling” early in the orc/goblin battle,
but you can’t tell them that.
Shadowing
If the characters are very cautious, they may
wish to watch the battle to its conclusion before deciding what to do. They will see the
battle end as described earlier. The surviving
goblins take all the gear they can carry from
their enemies and allies — each goblin carries
only one spear and bow — and retrieve the old
man and head off in the direction of the manor (see the DM’s map of the island).
The characters may wish to leave well
enough alone and not follow them. In that
case, see “When Things Go Wrong.” If, on
the other hand, they choose to shadow the
goblin force, they may; the goblins are tired,
wounded, and not suspecting pursuit.
If the characters just follow the goblins, the
demi-humans head straight to the goblin
headquarters near the Sea King’s manor (see
the DM’s map of the island and its key). The
characters see the lights in the manor, barracks, and stables, and also see the temple and
the fact that there are no lights within, indicating that it’s unoccupied.
The characters can follow the goblins and attack them later. They’ll either be using the
weapons taken from Hafkris, and/or the weapons left behind on the bodies in the ravine, or
boulders on hillsides on either side of the route
that the goblins are taking. Set up the combat
and run it normally; see “Sneaking,” above, for
the various results of this sort of action.
The Orcs and Goblins
Notes on the orcs and goblins follow. All
hit points given reflect the fact that these
fighters are already wounded.
Orc Leader: AC 8; HD 1 (hp 6); MV 9” ; #AT
1; Dmg 2-8/3-12 (bardiche), 1-4/1-3
(dagger); THAC0 20; AL LE.
Equipment: bardiche, dagger, padded armor.
Orcs with Bardiches (2): AC 10; HD 1 (hp 3);
MV 9”; #AT 1; Dmg 2-8/3-12 (bardiche),
1-4/ 1-3 (dagger); THAC0 20; AL LE.
Equipment: bardiche, dagger.
Orcs with Axes (3): AC 10; HD 1 (hp 4); MV
9”; #AT 1; Dmg 1-8/1-8 (battle axe), 1-4/
1-3 (dagger); THAC0 20; AL LE.
Equipment: battle axe, dagger.
Goblins with Spears (8): AC 10; HD 1 (hp 2);
MV 6”; #AT 1; Dmg 1-6/ 1-8 (spear), 1-4/
1-3 (dagger); THAC0 20; AL LE.
Equipment: spear, dagger.
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Goblin Archers (4): AC 10; HD 1 (hp 4); MV
6”; #AT 1; Dmg 1-6/1-6 (bow), 1-4/1-3
(dagger); THAC0 20; AL LE.
Equipment: battle axe, dagger.
Scavenging the Bodies
How much loot the characters can get from
the dead pirates depends on when they got to
the bodies and what the condition is of the
fallen enemies. For instance:
If the characters killed the orcs and goblins
in melee, they can salvage all the weapons
listed above, plus one cloak from each orc and
goblin (vermin-infested, but slight protection
from the weather — though they still need
shelter) and the padded armor and pair of
hard, high boots belonging to the orc commander.
If the characters rolled boulders down on
their enemies, they made an easy kill but have
less gear. They can salvage all the daggers
listed above. One in four polearms (spears and
bardiches) will be unbroken (roll 1d4 for each:
on a 1 it is unbroken). All bows and arrows
will be smashed. The axes are all right. The
cloaks, boots, and padded armor mentioned
above will be essentially unaffected.
If the goblins finished off the orcs and then
had an opportunity to strip the bodies, the
bodies left behind still have eight cloaks, one
unnoticed dagger, three bardiches, and three
spears. The five surviving goblins each took
one spear, one bow and arrows (one goblin
didn’t get a bow), three daggers, the boots
and padded armor from the orc commander,
and two cloaks apiece. (And the old man, of
course.) If later attacked and killed by the
player characters, these surviving goblins will
be carrying these goods.
Remember to deduct the appropriate weapons if the two goblin archers escaped.
The Old Man’s Story
Assuming that the characters finally get
around to rescuing the old man, he appears to
be a scarecrow of a man — bald, with a matted
dirty beard that would be white if washed, a
sallow complexion, wide eyes. He’s a compulsive talker. Even if not untied, he will talk,
and will try to convince the characters that he
can help them, yes, lead them to shelter, tell
them about the island, tell them about the
orcs and goblins, anything they want.
Whether they choose to talk with him on
the march toward shelter, or once they're
within the temple of the goddess (in the next
episode), he tells his story in a wheezing, ruminating tone.
My name — haven’t needed it in a long
time — is Keestake, and you’re the first
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human faces I’ve seen in more years than I
can remember. It’s true.
And you wouldn’t know it to look at me
now, but in my day, in my day, I was personal groom to himself — to Viledel, the
Sea King. Yes, this is the Island of
Viledel — you didn’t know that?
But himself died when the pirates
crushed the island, years and years ago,
when my hair was still black and my face
unlined. I didn’t fight on the day the pirates came, just hid in an overturned, ruined boat no one looked under, while the
murdering and the burning went on day
after day. And finally the pirates were all
gone, and I’ve been here alone since then.
Living in the house of the Sea King, protecting the treasure left behind — for the
pirates never found the real goods of Viledel, just some of the trinkets and baubles
kept in the manor—and becoming tired
and gray. How long has it been?
The orcs came a few days ago. They captured me, and said the stories said that the
treasure of the Sea King had never been
found, which was true enough, I guess.
And they said I knew where it was, which
was true, too, but I never told them so.
The goblins came two days ago. The orc
chief and the goblin chief talked, and the
goblin chief said they were there to claim
the island as their new stronghold, but the
orc said they were there for the treasure
too, and as soon as he said it the goblins
wanted the goods, and there’s been war
ever since.
The orcs are all set up in the old soldiers’
barracks, and the goblins are all in the old
stables, and the manor in the middle is
where they hunt around for treasure and
fight one another most of the time. But
there’s another place, where they went
once but leave alone now — the temple of
the goddess. It’s on the far side of the hill
overlooking the manor, and if you and
your friends want to take shelter there, no
one will bother with you.
If the characters insist on knowing more
about the treasure — which they probably
will — he’ll assume a sly and conspiratorial
tone, and promise to tell them all about the
treasure if they give him a fair share and help
him escape from the island. They can agree, or
force him to tell them with no promises given,
depending on their personalities—either way,
he’ll eventually tell them.
Yes, the treasure. There’s a lot of it. You
know what grave-goods are? Where Vile-
del was from, they like to bury their noble
dead with presents. When the dead wake
up, in the time that the gods decree, they
still have their favorite play-pretties with
them.
Viledel had him a son who died, and the
Sea King buried him with weapons and armor and sacks of gold and a few servants
and a little boat to sail ’em all over the
seas. We can drag that boat down the catacombs to this place you can get at from the
inside, but not the outside.
But gettin’ at the goods is going to be
hard. To get into the burial catacombs, you
have to get into the manor where all them
inhuman monsters is killing one another.
We can figure out how to do that when
we’re all warm and rested.
If requested, he also draws the characters
maps of the island, of the manor house, and
of the catacombs beneath them. Fold the
module cover to show the players what Keestake has drawn as the characters ask for it.
In any case. the old man eventually leads
the characters to the vicinity of the temple of
the goddess where they can protect themselves
from the wind and the bone-chilling rain.
Experience
Figure the party’s experience this way:
If the party killed the orcs and goblins while
there were still more orcs and goblins than
characters, each monster they killed is worth
14 experience points.
If the party killed the orcs and goblins when
there were as many or more characters as nonhumans, each one they killed is worth 7 experience points.
For each weapon or other piece of gear the
party acquires, it gains more experience:
For each battle-axe: 5 xp.
For each unbroken bardiche: 7 xp.
For each broken bardiche: 2 xp.
For the boots: 2 xp.
For each unbroken bow: 20 xp. (includes
value for arrows).
For each four cloaks: 1 xp.
For each dagger: 2 xp (includes value for
sheathes).
For the padded armor: 4 xp.
For each unbroken spear: 1 xp.
Add up all the experience gained by the
party and divide it among the characters who
participated in the combat.
Give experience point bonuses to individual characters for thinking up especially clever
tactics or activities; each such incident of really
helpful creativity should gain the character a
bonus of 20 xp.
Before launching into the third episode of the
adventure, let’s look at the island as a whole.
(Now that the characters have a native character to talk to, they can pump him for
information — so here it is.)
Map of the Island
Take a look at the DM’s map of the island:
(1) The Cove. This is the cove where the
shipwreck took place. The ship, as you can
see, has ground up on the headlands and cliff
on the right side of the cove.
(2) The Western Hills. These hills are impassable for the party of player characters unless they come up with climbing gear and
mountaineering training in the course of the
adventure — which is doubtful.
(3) The Temple of the Goddess. The temple
has its own map key later in this episode. The
temple is on the far slope of the large hill
which overlooks the manor of the Sea King, its
associated buildings, and the town further on.
(4) The Manor of the Sea King. This large,
rambling mansion once housed Viledel, his
family, and retainers. It has its own map key in
Episode Four.
(5) The Barracks of the Sea King. This
building is a long, low construction, rather
like a flattened and elongated barn. It can
house upwards of a hundred soldiers. Though
its shutters are now long blown away by wind,
its cots and contents ravaged by the weather
and the years, the orc commander has set up
his company of followers here. The barracks,
with its shutterless windows now nailed over,
is more defensible than any of the other large
buildings on the island, and much safer than
the crumbling and hazardous Manor. About
100 orcs occupy the barracks; at any given
time, about 24 will be on patrol (in four sixman teams, such as the one the characters encountered), and in times of battle most of the
orcs will fly to the attack, leaving a token force
of about 20 in the barracks. There are always
guards set at strategic points around the barracks, and two more on the roof, to keep vigil
against the goblins quartered in the stables.
(6) The Stables of the Sea King. Once it
housed Viledel’s horses and grooms; now it
houses the goblins so recently arrived on the
island. The stables are constructed much like
the barracks on the outside, with a few exceptions: dirt floors, fewer windows, larger doors,
and the interior is separated into stalls instead
of large barracks rooms. There are about 135
goblins stationed here, though two 12-goblin
patrols are outside at all times. Like the barracks, the stables are well guarded.
(7) The Old City. The small city where the
Sea King’s minions lived once upon a time is
now a ruin, burned 60 years ago and deteriorated by six decades of fierce weather, so little
but the rotting piers and the still-standing
chimneys indicate that a city once stood here.
(8) The Beach of the Orcs. It was here that
the orcs arrived, en masse, several days ago.
Six boats — 20-man galleys — are drawn up on
the beach. They are surrounded by a newlydug ditch and outward-projecting spikes cut
from the scrub trees of the island. A token
force of about 20 orcs guards the boats.
(9) The Beach of the Goblins. The arriving
goblin force pulled up in this cove two days
ago. Eight boats — galleys for 24 oarsgoblins—
are drawn up on the beach. A token force of
35 goblins guards the boats. At any given
time, 10 or 11 will be on the clifftops over the
cove, on duty; another 10 or 11 will be working in the camp, repairing the boats or doing
makework. The remainder will be off duty
and asleep.
(10) The Exit from the Catacombs. It is described in greater detail in the map key in Episode Five.
Orcs and Goblins
The orcs and goblins on the island are similar to those encountered in the last episode.
Orc Commanders: AC 8; HD 1 (hp 6); MV
9”; #AT 1; Dmg 2-8/3-12 (bardiche), 1-4/
1-3 (dagger); THAC0 20; AL LE.
Equipment: bardiche, dagger, padded armor.
Orcs with bardiches: AC 10; HD 1 (hp 3); MV
9”; #AT 1; Dmg 2-8/3-12 (bardiche), 1-4/
1-3 (dagger); THAC0 20; AL LE.
Equipment: bardiche, dagger.
Orcs with axes: AC 10; HD 1 (hp 4); MV 9”;
#AT 1; Dmg 1-8/1-8 (battle axe), 1-4/1-3
(dagger); THAC0 20; AL LE.
Equipment: battle axe, dagger.
Goblin Commanders: AC 8; HD 1 (hp 2);
MV 6”; #AT 1; Dmg 1-6/1-8 (spear), 1-6/
1-6 (bow), 1-4/1-3 (dagger); THAC0 20;
AL LE.
Equipment: spear, dagger, leather armor.
Goblins with spears: AC 10; HD 1 (hp 2); MV
6”; #AT 1; Dmg 1-6/1-8 (spear), 1-4/1-3
(dagger); THAC0 20; AL LE.
Equipment: spear, dagger.
Goblin archers: AC 10; HD 1 (hp 4); MV 6”;
#AT 1; Dmg 1-6/1-6 (bow), 1-4/1-3 (dagger); THAC0 20; AL LE.
Equipment: battle axe, dagger.
Orcs and their Arrangements
The orcs are members of the Hak-kubra
tribe, a seafaring orc clan from the coast of the
continent, south of the Korinn Archipelago.
Seafaring orcs are always pirates — they
never deign to fish or trade, not when there’s a
chance to make an honest profit by killing
some innocent and taking away his possessions.
The orcs on the island use mostly axes and
bardiches. Of the force present on the island,
four in ten will be armed with bardiches, five
will be armed with axes, and one will be a
commander. Any small party will break down
in similar proportions.
Goblins and Their Arrangements
The goblins are members of the Sithisila
Fleet, a buccaneering society with a secret base
on the island of Tetris. The Sithisila Fleet is
not so completely piratical as the Hak-kubra
tribe; they hire out as mercenaries for naval
wars in addition to preying upon the weak.
Of every ten goblins on the island, six are
armed with spears, three are archers, and the
tenth is a commander.
Wildlife on the Island
There’s not much living on the island, so
you needn’t worry about random animal encounters — the only encounters are where the
text and map keys indicate.
Creatures living on the island include ordinary sea birds, wild goats (especially in the
western hills), and ordinary rats. The old
man, Keestake, survived these 60 years by eating wild plants, especially wild onions, and by
feasting on rats. (This has done wonders for
his sanity, not to mention his breath.)
Players’ Map of the Island
If the players ask the old man to describe
the island to them in any sort of detail, he tells
them that he will draw them a map once
they’re safe in the temple. Once they reach
the temple, he hunts up some scraps of parchment and a burnt stick and draws them the
Player’s Map of the Island. Fold the module
cover to show the players their map at this
time.
The player’s map contains most of the information on the DM’s map. Although it
doesn’t show the catacomb exit, Keestake can
tell the characters approximately where it is.
He is delighted to tell them all about the
island — where, for instance, the plumpest
and juiciest rats can be found; the hilltop that
the Sea King loved best; the beach where
Keestake hid from the pirate attackers 60 years
ago; and so on. All these details are extraneous to the adventure, although you can develop
Keestake’s personality for the players as he exults over these irrelevant historical sites.
On With the Adventure
As mentioned, the old man is delighted to
lead the player characters to the temple of the
goddess. Keestake tells the characters that he
is no priest himself, but he has always had
veneration for the temple. The orcs sacked it
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three days ago, looking for treasures, but they
became alarmed when thunder sounded—the
thunder that signaled the arrival of the storm
that still rages around the island. They left
and won’t be back. While Keestake was their
captive, he learned that the orcs are now
deathly afraid of the place. “But noble youths
such as yourself,” he says, “seeking only shelter, won’t gain the wrath of the goddess.”
Who is the Goddess?
You have to decide who the goddess is, because the characters will inevitably ask.
Use one of the goddesses from the regular
pantheon used in your campaign. The goddess should be any goddess who is a patron of
heroes and adventurers, especially one who
gives luck and wisdom to her followers.
If you’re using the Legends & Lore supplement, here are some sample goddesses of the
appropriate type:
Babylonian—Ishtar
Celtic—Brigit
Egyptian—Isis
Greek—Athena
Indian—Lakshmi
Japanese—Kishijoten
Of these, Ishtar and Athena are the most
appropriate, but the actual choice depends on
the flavor of your campaign.
Outside the Temple
Keestake leads the characters down backtrails and across rough terrain; he explains
that he doesn’t want to be recaptured by the
orcs or the goblins. Eventually the group arrives at the hillside below the temple and sees
it silhouetted against the dimming sky—the
first indication that it’s almost nighttime.
When they get within a hundred yards of
the temple, the characters see the unimpressive sight of the building. Relate to them the
following:
The building before you was doubtless a
beautiful temple in its day—two stories in
height, crafted from well-fitted planks of
dark hardwoods brought from the mainland. The windows were spacious and
cheerful, closed against the wind with
brightly-painted shutters; a gate of wellcrafted wrought iron once stood before the
large front door, and a trellis for welltended ivy once leaned against the right
half of the front face of the temple.
Today, after 60 years of neglect, the temple is a wreck. The expensive wood is old
and pitted, cracked and decayed. The windows are still spacious, but most of the
shutters are gone; the few that remain
14
bang open and closed in the wind, or hang
crookedly from a single hinge. The
wrought iron gate is as intricate as ever, but
rusted over, rusted clear through in places.
The ivy once planted as decoration now
covers the entire right side of the front
wall, and continues around the whole right
side of the temple.
It’s a spectacle of gloom and disrepair.
There are, however, no lights within, no
sign of habitation, and the walls may be
sound enough to keep out the worst of the
weather.
The old man leads the characters clear up to
the gate at the entrance, pulls it open a
little—it makes a squeak, alarming but really
not too loud—and steps through the stillworking doors of heavy oak into the temple itself.
Once the characters have entered, they find
that the main hall where they stand is thoroughly shielded against the wind, for it has no
windows, and the front doors are sound. Tell
them, once they’ve been in the temple for a
few minutes, that their shakes are subsiding,
their fingers and toes becoming less numb,
etc.
Inside the Temple
Take a look at the DM’s map of the temple.
The individual areas of the temple are as follows.
1. Antechamber
The first room beyond the gate and doors is
the antechamber, a small and thoroughly dark
chamber. Keestake can move through it, and
guide the characters through it, with the confidence of utter familiarity.
If the characters get a chance to see the
room (this requires some light), they see the
following.
This room once had plastered walls
painted with frescoes of the goddess, her
symbols and her deeds. The paint and
plaster have badly flaked over the years.
There is no furniture in the room, only
wind-blown rubbish.
There are two sets of double doors in the
room, one leading outside and the other,
further into the temple. (Substitute “into
the Hall of the goddess,” if the characters
have already been in the next room.)
2. Hall of the Goddess
The next room past the antechamber is the
main hall — “This,” Keestake announces, “is
the hall of the goddess.” Once again, it’s almost utterly black, but the echoes of the characters’ speech convince them that it’s quite
large. The floor, they can feel, is tiled; there
are pieces of wood, which feel like broken furniture, all over the floor.
The characters can try to make a fire out of
rubbish from the antechamber and the broken wood from this main hall. If they do not,
the old man automatically begins to do so. He
says that there are no windows out of the hall
of the goddess, and the room is tall enough
that they won’t choke on the smoke. If they
order him not to make a fire, or physically restrain him, he naturally won’t build a fire. In
that case you should tell the player character
with the highest Wisdom score that there
doesn’t seem to be any real reason not to have
a fire and thaw out.
If the characters do build a fire, they see:
This chamber is very large, and two stories
in height. There is broken furniture all
over the tiled floors—it looks like the remains of chairs, tables, and perhaps low
couches. Most of the wood looks aged, but
you can see that the breaks are all fresh.
Everything has been smashed recently.
On the east wall, in the middle, is a set
of double doors, closed. On the south wall
is the set of double doors by which you entered the chamber. On the north wall, at
the east corner, is a very small and inconspicuous door. All the doors in the chamber are still hanging on their hinges.
The west wall is actually a flight of three
shallow steps leading up to a line of pillars.
Between the pillars, you can see that cloths
or tapestries, now ratty and sagging, have
been hung, blocking off your view of the
chamber beyond.
The walls of the hall of the goddess were
once plastered smooth and painted with
frescoes of the goddess in all her aspects.
Now the paint is curling, the plaster is broken and peeling, and there are large cracks
in the plaster—probably from the foundation of the temple settling over the years.
Additionally, someone has taken a club to
the walls here and there, evidenced by
deep gouges and tears in the plaster, and
places on the wall have been smeared with
filth.
Keestake says that the damage to the
room—the smashed furniture, the damaged
and befouled walls—all took place when the
orcs investigated the temple, looking for treasure. Enraged because they found no gold,
they destroyed all the furnishings and much
of the painting, defiling the decoration; they
would have done more, but the sudden arrival
of the violent storm made them break off their
vandalism and flee.
attack the characters, and try to run if attacked.
3. Altar Chamber
5. Kitchen
When the characters decide to investigate
the upraised room beyond the dangling cur
tains, they see the following.
This is a large room with heavy wooden tables running around most of the walls. There
is a large, recessed fireplace on the east wall.
It’s as large as a small room, certainly enough
to mount a cross-bar and roast a bull within
while simultaneously cooking other dishes.
The fireplace seems to be in good shape The
window’s shutters are still closed, and ivy
creeps in through holes in them; it takes a successful “Open Doors” roll to shove a shutter
open.
The tables are all undamaged, and the orcs,
other than taking a few preliminary axe swings
at the plaster walls, do not seem to have done
much damage here.
There is, unknown to the orcs, the characters, and even the goddess, a creature living in
the upper parts of the chimney. It is a ghoul. It
preyed last on the crew of a merchant ship.
killing and gradually consuming the entire
crew. The ship ran aground on the north shore
of the island a few months ago. Since then the
creature has found itself a nest in the temple
and, like Keestake, survived by eating rats. It
has not captured Keestake yet because the old
man is too wary and paranoid for the ghoul to
catch and, despite his age, he can still outrun
it.
Keestake knows about the ghoul but is not
going to mention him—for reasons to be
found on Keestake’s character sheet and during Episode Five.
This chamber is raised about a foot and a
half above the floor of the hall of the goddess. You had to push your way through
the tattered curtains to enter. You could
tell, as you did so, that these ratty cloths
were once fine velvet, purple embroidered
upon in gold, but they’ve aged now into a
uniform, revolting brown and you cannot
tell now what the embroidery represented.
There are only two items in the chamber.
One is a statue of the goddess. She is sitting on a throne, looking down into the
hall of the goddess; her expression is
thoughtful, with the faintest trace of a
smile on her lips.
The sculptor must have been a tremendous talent, for the statue is posed in a very
natural manner, head slightly bowed, left
hand extended in a gesture of blessing.
right hand gripping the arm of the throne.
But it, too, is a ruin now. The nose has
been broken off, the left hand likewise, a
great crack runs across the torso, and the
face and torso are smeared with filth.
The other object in the room is a low table, obviously an altar, set down before the
statue of the goddess. Since it bears no
trace of bloodstains, new or old, it must
have been an altar for offerings instead of
sacrifices.
Both statue and altar are sculpted out of
fine marble. The walls of this chamber are
white and unadorned.
The old man confirms that the damage to
the statue is also recent, also a result of the
orcs’ defilement.
4. Temple Offices
These are simple rooms with panelled walls
and the ruins of furniture — tables and
chairs — scattered all over. The walls have been
hacked upon by orcs looking for secret panels
and passages but, except for firewood, there is
nothing of interest here. The floor is tile, and
the shutters are closed over all the windows.
These shutters can only be opened with a successful “Open Doors” roll, for the shutters are
held in place by the ivy outside. The ivy forced
its way in through the shutters here and there.
There are rats, of the ordinary sort, scuttling around in the rubbish here. They do not
The Ghoul: AC 6; HD 2 (hp 7); MV 9”; #AT
3; Dmg 1-3 (claw) /1-3 (claw) / 1-6 (fang);
THAC0 16; special attack Paralyzation
(saving throw applicable); AL CE.
The ghoul does not attack people it hears
creeping about in the kitchen. It huddles silently at the top of the kitchen, and attacks at
this time only if a character with infravision
(i.e., elf, dwarf, etc.) looks up the chimney
Otherwise it waits to attack until the characters are asleep, as described later in this episode.
6. Storeroom
This is a large room with no windows and a
solid door with a broken locking mechanism.
It once contained stored food: casks of ale and
wine, sacks of grain, and so forth. The casks
are still there, but broken; the sacks are still
there, rotted and decayed. Again, there’s
nothing here of value to the characters except
perhaps firewood.
7. Storeroom
This storeroom, like the previous one, is a
single large room with no windows, and a
solid door with a broken locking mechanism.
It’s different from the other in that it has
thicker walls—a double layer of bricks was laid
in and plastered over, so the room seems a little smaller than room 6 — and the only things
to be found inside are large hooks attached to
the ceiling. The hooks have very old, brown
stains upon them. Any character can figure
out that this was a storeroom for hanging
meats, with thick walls to keep things cool.
8. Main Corridor
Any corridor marked 8 is a main corridor for
the temple. This means only that the doors are
all nicely finished, the walls neatly plastered
(before six decades of weathering), the floors
tiled. The floors are now covered in a thin
layer of leaves and refuse, and rats lurk in the
mess, but there’s nothing dangerous within
the corridors.
9. Servants’ Corridor
Any corridor marked 9 is a servants’ corridor; it’s just as wide as the main corridors, but
the walls are crudely planked, the floor of decaying planks, the doors all crude and illfitting. Since most of these doors were hung
on leather hinges, they are no longer hanging;
some still stand in place, most are on the floor.
Like the main corridors, the floors are covered
in refuse and are occupied by rats.
10. Maid Servants’ Quarters
This chamber used to act as a dormitory for
servants. If the characters really take the time
to prowl through the ruined furniture and
scraps of cloth which litter the floor, they can
determine that this was the female servants’
dormitory; the rotting clothes are maids’
robes.
11. Men Servants’ Quarters
This chamber, like 10, was a dormitory for
servants. Like 10, it’s a wreck, but by assembling scraps of clothes, the player characters
can determine that it was the male servants’
dormitory.
12. Senior Servants’ Quarters
This is a series of small bedroom chambers,
decked out with crude furniture (broken), obviously intended for couples or servants of
slightly higher importance.
13. Storeroom
This storeroom is crammed nearly to the
ceiling with what had once been bolts of
cloth, chests of clothes, chests with buttons
and threads and other clothes-making accouterments. Numerous rats live in the mess
made by this collapsing mass of cloth. Fearful
of the ghoul in the kitchen, they keep away
from player characters, scurrying out through
15
cracks in the walls.
If the characters take some time to prowl
around, they can find enough cloth still in
good condition to make up replacement garments or cloaks, if they need them. They can
also find many brooches, pins, buckles, and so
forth, all of low value — 1 gp worth, total.
14. Well
In the garden is a small well. The water in it
is good; Keestake has used it all these years. A
worn path leads from the well, through the
garden, and down to the manor of the Sea
King.
15. Garden
This was once a nicely planted and kept garden. Now, 60 years later, it’s a small jungle of
overgrown flowering plants. The stones which
made up the path through it are broken or
covered over. There’s nothing dangerous here,
but except for the path and the well it looks
quite menacing and untamed.
16. Priests’ / Priestesses’ Quarters
Upstairs, all these chambers are trashed-out
quarters which once were sumptuous bedchambers and sitting chambers. Obviously,
priests and priestesses of the goddess were not
required to limit themselves to poverty. Today,
as you might expect, the rooms are wrecked,
the furniture smashed, the walls carved up,
the paneling torn out, the floor coated with
mulch and rat-waste and living rats.
Enter the Goddess
Eventually, the characters finish their explorations and have pumped Keestake of all the
information they’re likely to get from him.
It’s fully dark outside, they’re exhausted and
hungry but warm and dry, and eventually they
drop off to sleep — though it’s possible, even
probable, that they will leave a guard awake.
If they seem too slow about getting to sleep,
you can ask them, “How are you going to handle the sleeping arrangements?” — which is
when they need to indicate their guard arrangement, if they have one.
In any case, most or all of the characters will
ultimately drop off to sleep. The hall of the
goddess, in spite of its great open spaces, is the
most congenial chamber to sleep in — in any
other chamber, enough wind howls in to chill
the characters.
As it turns out, the goddess — whichever
goddess you have chosen to be represented by
this temple — has been keeping a careful eye
on the area since her precincts were desecrated, since she commenced that great storm
in her irritation several days ago. She’s seen
the player characters enter her temple, and
she is curious about their presence and their
desires.
So she appears to one of them
Whom Does the Goddess Choose?
Keestake knows the details of the temple,
up to and including the presence of the ghoul,
as mentioned. If the characters ask him what’s
beyond a particular door or what’s in a specific
room, he is willing to tell them. As noted, he
avoids any mention of the ghoul.
If only one character is on guard through
the night (a foolish arrangement, but possible), the goddess appears to that character.
If, during the characters’ explorations of
the temple, any character made a kind remark
about the goddess — or, especially, if a character expressed outrage at the way the temple
was desecrated — she appears during that character’s shift as guard (or she magically awakens
the character, if no character is on guard). If
two or more characters expressed similar sentiments, she chooses the one with the highest
total of Wisdom and Charisma.
If a character, for any reason, spent time trying to clean off the statue of the goddess, she
automatically appears to him, regardless of
the guard arrangements. She causes the guard
on duty to fall asleep (a simple sleep spell, applied until it succeeds; the guard falls asleep
but remains on his feet) and then appears to
the character who attempted to clean her
statue.
Players’ Map of the Temple
Appearance of the Goddess
If requested, Keestake draws the characters
a map of the temple — give the Players’ Map of
the temple to the players, but only if they request it. If they don’t ask for it, let them map
out the temple normally as (and if) they explore it.
If the goddess is appearing to a character
who is already awake, she simply causes a subdued glow to appear around her statue and
calls the character’s name in a low tone. She is
mystically keeping the other characters asleep,
for the first few moments of conversation at
17. Upper Floor Over the
Hall of the Goddess
The hall of the goddess is two stories high,
of course, so this section is walled off from the
rest of the second floor; it’s open air above the
hall.
In all the old living chambers, characters
find ruins of furniture, chamberpots, clothing, etc. Nothing of value, nothing to use.
Keestake’s Commentary
on the Temple
least, so the character has no luck if he tries to
awaken them. (If two characters were awake,
the character she plans to speak with and one
other, she does not cause the other to fall
asleep, but she does not address him by name
for the first few moments of conversation.)
If the goddess is appearing to a character
who is asleep, he awakens to the sound of a
bell tolling, far away, except that it seems to
be coming from the now-glowing statue. The
situation is as described above; the other characters are temporarily and thoroughly asleep.
The statue changes subtly: the filth disappears (if it wasn’t cleaned off already), the
broken nose and arm float up and themselves,
the crack in the torso repairing itself, and the
the statue even moves and stands, inhabited
by the essence of the goddess.
The Goddess’s Words
Having gotten the character’s attention (by
calling his name, and with the fancy special
effects) the goddess addresses him somberly:
“Mortal man, why are you and your companions come to my temple?”
Assuming the character tells her anything,
she gradually loosens her control on the other
characters and they wake up, one by one, to
the sound of their companion talking, and to
the sight of him addressing this beautiful,
moving statue.
Having heard the characters’ story, she addresses the characters.
You see about you the results of the raid of
the Hak-kubra, the pirate orcs. They have
defiled my sanctuary.
When men came hither three generations ago, they slew the men of this island,
but let my temple be — as is proper. Since
then, my sanctuary has been subject to
wind and storm, age and rot, but I was not
offended, for that is nature’s right — to
beat down what men have raised.
But the acts of debasement you see
about you have offended me I choose to
destroy this island, and all living upon it: a
proper cleansing of the stain made by the
Hak-kubra.
I see no reason for you to die for another’s offense, however. So I will not
cleanse this island this night, as I had
planned, but will stay my hand another
day, and lay waste to this place at nightfall
tomorrow. If you are fled by then, I will
adjudge you fit to survive, and the storm
which destroys this place will do no harm
to your craft.
It is a difficult test. I see you have not
chosen your adventuresome paths willingly. So this aid will I give you: there are
items of power to be found on this island.
17
For the time you remain here, I will allow
you to use any as if you were trained in
their use. Should you find an object of
magical power, use it wisely; perhaps it will
help you toward your goal.
Conversation
Make that little speech of the goddess’s as
natural as possible, and should the characters
wish to speak with her during its course, let
them. Make it as normal a conversation as you
can manage (as normal as you can have when a
goddess speaks to mortals, that is).
Once the goddess concludes her pronouncement, she asks, “Have you anything to
say or ask?”
If one or more of the characters wishes to
address the goddess, he certainly may. Some
sample questions they might ask:
How do we escape the island? She tells
them that they must find that out themselves,
in order to prove themselves worthy
Will she extend her time limit? No. Tomorrow at nightfall, this island will be cleansed.
What information will she give them about
the manor, the treasure, the orcs, or the goblins? None.
In short, such questions won’t gain the
characters much information, but will give
them an opportunity to impress the
goddess — or anger her — with their courtliness
(or lack of it). Speaking of which . . .
Currying Favor
A character, if he knows what is good for
him, will address the goddess respectfully or
not at all. But if a character goes beyond the
simple respect that the gods deserve, he impresses the goddess with his manner.
To manage this, a character would have to
be quite well-spoken when addressing her, or
offer well-chosen flattery (she knows flattery
when she hears it, but is still susceptible, as
mortals are), or offer service to the goddess regardless of any reward it may gain him.
Any character who makes such an offer, or
lavishes some impossibly pleasing compliment, or addresses her with words expertly
chosen and delivered, earns her favor
throughout the adventure. Her favor means
this: Once, during the rest of the adventure,
the character gets an automatic 20 on a dieroll when things are at their worst. When it
looks as though a character is going to die, or
fail to save another from dying, let him make
his last roll before doom rolls down on him—
and then disregard the result. Tell him, “No,
that’s a 20.” If it’s a saving throw, he saves automatically. If it’s a roll to hit, it’s an automatic hit, and you should give the hit the
18
maximum damage possible for the weapon.
Should a character, when addressing the
goddess, offer to become her cleric, he earns
two favors; one which occurs as described
above, and one which occurs once he becomes
a 1st level character — if he’s true to his word
and takes the clerical class. If, at 1st level, he
takes some other character class, he earns a disfavor (explained below).
Any character who previously worked to
clean off the statue, or did a lot of work trying
to repair the damage done by the orcs, automatically earns a favor.
Earning Disfavor
Likewise, a character can make the goddess
very angry with insensitivity, expressions of
anger, etc. Should any character do so, he
earns her disfavor sometime in the course of
the adventure. The first time he achieves some
spectacular success at a crucial time, tell him,
“No, it didn’t work. I don’t care what the dice
say. The attack (saving throw, trick, whatever)
failed. Additionally, your sword (body, trap,
whatever object is appropriate) is glowing
with the same glow that surrounded the statue
of the goddess earlier . . .”
A character could really offend the goddess
—by insulting her repeatedly, even attacking
her (some characters have enough selfdestructiveness in their natures to do this).
Should this happen, the goddess slays him
with her usual spell or attack—such attacks
usually cause 10d6 or 5d10 points of damage,
quite enough to obliterate a foolish mortal.
The Goddess Departs
Once the questions are concluded, or if no
questions were asked at all, the goddess resumes her perch on the throne and the glow
fades, leaving an inanimate—but now undamaged—statue.
Later That Same Night
Ultimately, as before, the characters drop
off to sleep again. The encounter with the
goddess should not have taken place later
than about four hours from daybreak—plenty
of time for the characters to get some more
sleep. Perhaps they leave a character on guard
again, perhaps not.
The Ghoul Strikes
The ghoul was creeping out of the chimney
when he felt the goddess’s presence enter the
temple, and he hid. But now, hours later, it’s
time for him to attack—to kill a party of humans and let their bodies season for a bit before devouring them.
He comes creeping out of the chimney
again, stealing up the hall, through the door
to the main corridor, into the east-west ser-
vants’ corridor, and then through the small
door into the hall of the goddess.
He was a thief in life, so give him a Move Silently score like that of a 5th level thief: 40%
He creeps up on the characters. If a guard is
awake, the ghoul contrives to sneak up behind
the guard, even if he has to enter by another
door. Give him two Move Silently rolls; one to
enter the room silently, one to cross the intervening distance to the victim. Assuming he
makes it that far unnoticed, he attacks.
The ghoul is not stealthy in the attack: He
screams, gibbers, jumps, rends, and tears. Set
up and run the combat normally. Sleeping
characters awaken during the first round of
combat, can stand up during the second, and
can act and attack during the third.
Combat Notes
Once again, the ghoul’s stats are:
Ghoul: AC 6; HD 2 (hp 7); MV 9”; #AT 3;
Dmg 1-3 (claw)/ 1-3 (claw)/ 1-6 (fang);
special attack Paralyzation (saving throw
applicable); AL CE
If the ghoul manages to kill or paralyze all
the characters, he won’t automatically slay all
of them. He intends to make his dinner last a
while. He hangs the dead ones up on the meat
hooks; while he’s doing so, the paralysis wears
off the first character to make a successful saving throw (roll once per turn) If no character
has made a successful roll by the time the
ghoul is through, the goddess burns one of
her favors by unparalyzing a character. If no
character had earned a favor, she frees the
doughtiest warrior among them
If the ghoul has killed any or all of the characters, go to “When Things Go Wrong” to see
how to come up with replacement characters.
A Final Favor
If some or all of the characters survive the
night’s events, when they wake up the next
morning they are completely healed — all
damage from exposure or attacks is completely
recovered, a final blessing of the goddess.
Experience
All characters who see the goddess earn 20
points of experience for that event alone
A character who earns a favor also earns an
additional 40 points of experience. If he
earned more than one favor, he earns 40 xp for
each.
The ghoul is worth 62 points of experience,
divided among the surviving characters who
participated in its defeat.
Character Tracking Form
Character Name:
Character Name:
Alignment Checks
Alignment Checks
Lawful
Neutral
Chaotic
Good
Neutral
Evil
Lawful
Neutral
Chaotic
Character Class Check:
Character Class Check:
Cleric
Druid
Fighter
Paladin
Ranger
Magic-User
Illusionist
Thief
Assassin
Monk
Cleric
Druid
Fighter
Paladin
Ranger
Magic-User
Illusionist
Thief
Assassin
Monk
Notes:
Notes:
Character Name:
Character Name:
Alignment Checks
Alignment Checks
Lawful
Neutral
Chaotic
Character Class Check:
Cleric
Druid
Fighter
Paladin
Ranger
Magic-User
Illusionist
Thief
Assassin
Monk
Notes:
Good
Neutral
Evil
Good
Neutral
Evil
Lawful
Neutral
Chaotic
Good
Neutral
Evil
Character Class Check:
Cleric
Druid
Fighter
Paladin
Ranger
Magic-User
Illusionist
Thief
Assassin
Monk
Notes:
©
1986 TSR Inc. All Rights Reserved.
1
Character Tracking Form
Character Name:
Character Name:
Alignment Checks
Alignment Checks
Lawful
Neutral
Chaotic
Good
Neutral
Evil
Cleric
Druid
Fighter
Paladin
Ranger
Magic-User
Illusionist
Thief
Assassin
Monk
Cleric
Druid
Fighter
Paladin
Ranger
Magic-User
Illusionist
Thief
Assassin
Monk
Notes:
Notes:
Character Name:
Character Name:
Alignment Checks
Alignment Checks
Lawful
Neutral
Chaotic
Character Class Check:
Cleric
Druid
Fighter
Paladin
Ranger
Magic-User
Illusionist
Thief
Assassin
Monk
Notes:
2
1986 TSR Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Good
Neutral
Evil
Character Class Check:
Character Class Check:
©
Lawful
Neutral
Chaotic
Good
Neutral
Evil
Lawful
Neutral
Chaotic
Character Class Check:
Cleric
Druid
Fighter
Paladin
Ranger
Magic-User
Illusionist
Thief
Assassin
Monk
Notes:
Good
Neutral
Evil
3
Keestake, the Old Man
Melisana of Ventris
Human Male
Age 83
6’, 125 lbs, white hair, blue eyes
Alignment Tendency: CE
Human Female
Age 19
5’5”, 130 lbs, brown hair, blue eyes
Alignment Tendency: NG
Str
Int
Wis
Dex
Con
Cha
Str
Int
Wis
Dex
Con
Cha
5
15
10
15
11
8
HP: 6
Weapon Proficiency: Dagger
Languages: Common
Skill: Trapper/furrier (especially rats)
HP: 6
Weapon Proficiency: Dagger
Language: Common
Skills: Sailor, merchant
Keestake’s story and mental state are described in some detail at the beginning of Episode Five. He’s really a victim of the
circumstances that left him alone on this island for 60 years but
he is crazy nonetheless, and a danger to the player-characters
once they’re in the catacombs.
Melisana, daughter of the merchant Melkeras of Ventris, is a
good-natured and insightful young woman, of sufficient natural wisdom not to have grown up spoiled by her overindulgent
parents. She is determined to run her father’s business when he
retires from the day-to-day management, and has set herself
the task of becoming a good sailor and merchant, a goal she is
accomplishing. She is not violent of nature, though the need
for survival will prompt her to help her allies if they are endangered.
Pretos / Pretis of Rabin’s Reef
Alhelor / Alhellara of Barret’s Quay
Human
Age 22
Elf
Age 569
Str
Int
Wis
Dex
Con
Cha
13
9
9
15
10
12
HP: 6
Weapon Proficiency: Dagger
Language: Common
Skill: Sailor (salt)
Pretos/Pretis is a salt-water sailor with several years’ experience in trading expeditions. If the character Demin/Demis is
also used, Pretos/Pretis knows and has served with him/her on
occasion.
©
1986 TSR Inc. All Rights Reserved.
4
9
13
17
12
11
14
Str
Int
Wis
Dex
Con
Cha
13
14
13
13
10
10
HP: 6
Weapon Proficiency: Staff
Languages: Common, elvish, gnomish, halfling, goblin, hobgoblin, orcish, gnoll.
Skills: Gambler, Trader/Barterer
Alhelor/Alhellara is an elf, half a millennium old but still
youthful by elf standards. He/she has spent many years picking up profits from haggling and gambling, and is a fluent linguist.
DM’s Map of the Island
Map does not show numerous small hills and ridges.
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
- Site of Shipwreck
- Rugged Hills
- Temple
- Manor
- Barracks
- Stables
- Old City
- Orc Beach
- Goblin Beach
- Exit from Catacombs
Gofus / Gofin of Chawdik
Lythandar / Lythandra of Highport
Gnome
Age 319
Half-Elf
Age 45
Str
Int
Wis
Dex
Con
Cha
5
14
13
14
14
16
Str
Int
Wis
Dex
Con
Cha
17
15
3
12
14
13
HP: 6
Weapon Proficiency: Dagger
Languages: Common, dwarvish, gnome, halfling, goblin. kobold.
Skill: Fisher (netting)
HP: 6
Weapon Proficiency: Dagger
Languages: Common. elvish, gnome. halfling. goblin. hobgoblin, orcish, gnoll.
Skills: Armorer, Bowyer
This character, resident of the island of Chawdik, is a fisherman, skilled at dragging nets to catch fish. Like all gnomes.
he/she speaks several languages. Gofus/Gofin compensates
for a serious lack of strength by relying on the impressive bearing (charisma) and the none-too-shabby other abilities he/she
possesses.
Lythander/Lythandra is an apprentice armorer (and parttime bowyer, though untrained in the use of the bow) on the
island of Highport. He/she has never been much of a success at
normal human-type jobs: that abysmal Wisdom keeps the
character from wisely and sagely sticking to projects from start
to completion.
Marak / Mara of Caftenor
Demin / Demis of Ventris
Human
Age 24
Human
Age 19
Str
Int
Wis
Dex
Con
Cha
14
7
14
12
13
10
Str
Int
Wis
Dex
Con
Cha
9
13
16
16
14
12
HP: 6
Weapon Proficiency: Dagger
Language: Common
Skill: Jeweler/lapidary
HP: 6
Weapon Proficiency: Dart
Language: Common
Skill: Navigator (salt)
Marak/Mara is a jeweler’s assistant from Caftenor. While not
especially bright, Marak/Mara has good common sense, plus
good physical strength and endurance. and is a fine apprentice.
Demin/Demis is a professional navigator. and has been at
sea almost 8 years. The character quickly learned the finer
points of deep sea navigation, has a good weather sense, and
drafts accurate maps (functions of the high Wisdom and Dexterity scores).
©
1986 TSR Inc. All Rights Reserved.
9
10
Character Tracking Form
Pretos/Pretis
Alhelor/Alhellara
Alignment Checks
Alignment Checks
Lawful
Neutral
Chaotic
Good
Neutral
Evil
Lawful
Neutral
Chaotic
Good
Neutral
Evil
Character Class Check:
Character Class Check:
Cleric
Druid
Fighter
Paladin
Ranger
Magic-User
Illusionist
Thief
Assassin
Monk
Cleric
Druid
Fighter
Paladin
Ranger
Magic-User
Illusionist
Thief
Assassin
Monk
Notes:
Notes:
Gofus/ Gofin
Lythandar/Lythandra
Alignment Checks
Alignment Checks
Lawful
Neutral
Chaotic
Character Class Check:
Cleric
Druid
Fighter
Paladin
Ranger
Magic-User
Illusionist
Thief
Assassin
Monk
Notes:
Good
Neutral
Evil
Lawful
Neutral
Chaotic
Good
Neutral
Evil
Character Class Check:
Cleric
Druid
Fighter
Paladin
Ranger
Magic-User
Illusionist
Thief
Assassin
Monk
Notes:
©
1986 TSR Inc. All Rights Reserved.
11
Character Tracking Form
Marak/Mara
Demin / Demis
Alignment Checks
Alignment Checks
Lawful
Neutral
Chaotic
Good
Neutral
Evil
Cleric
Druid
Fighter
Paladin
Ranger
Magic-User
Illusionist
Thief
Assassin
Monk
Cleric
Druid
Fighter
Paladin
Ranger
Magic-User
Illusionist
Thief
Assassin
Monk
Notes:
Notes:
Character Name:
Character Name:
Alignment Checks
Alignment Checks
Lawful
Neutral
Chaotic
Character Class Check:
Cleric
Druid
Fighter
Paladin
Ranger
Magic-User
Illusionist
Thief
Assassin
Monk
Notes:
1986 TSR Inc. All Rights Reserved
12
Good
Neutral
Evil
Character Class Check:
Character Class Check:
©
Lawful
Neutral
Chaotic
Good
Neutral
Evil
Lawful
Neutral
Chaotic
Character Class Check:
Cleric
Druid
Fighter
Paladin
Ranger
Magic-User
Illusionist
Thief
Assassin
Monk
Notes:
Good
Neutral
Evil
Daybreak
At dawn, as noted in the previous chapter,
the player characters arise and everyone is
completely healed — the final blessing of the
goddess.
The day dawns overcast and chilly, with occasional spatterings of cold rain, but it isn’t
the climatic nightmare of the day before. The
characters can tell that they aren’t facing damage and death from exposure today. Perhaps
this is another gift from the goddess.
If no one asks the old man Keestakc, either
last night or this morning, he volunteers the
information that he thinks he knows about
“some o’ them objects of power the goddess
mentioned;”
Aye, I know about some odd bits and
pieces hereabouts. The Sea King had many
treasures from his years of adventuring before settlin’ down here. The pirates ran off
with most of ’em, but they didn’t recognize all of ’em. Nor would I.
But one of ‘em that he gave the queen
was this little stick o’ wood that would
throb in your hand when it was near the
Sea King’s funny treasures. I never bothered with it, these 60 years. Not my place
to be meddlin’ with the treasures of the
family. Nor yours either, if it weren’t lifeand-death. I’ll show you where it is, if you
want.
Players’ Map of the Manor
If the player characters request it, the old
man, as usual, will sketch them a crude map
of the manor of the Sea King. When they request it, give them the Players’ Map of the
manor.
When the old man gives the characters their
map of the manor, he goes over it with them
briefly, showing them the layout and what the
various parts of the manor are.
The manor of the Sea King is a single-story,
large, rambling mansion built roughly in the
shape of the letter H.
The north-west projection, or wing, is
where the manor’s residents lived 60 years
ago. It consists mostly of bedrooms and living
suites. The “little stick that throbs” is here —
or used to be, in the queen’s suite. There may
be others of the goddess’s items of magic in
this area, but there are likely to be prowling
orcs here: the orcs normally enter the building
through this wing.
The south-west wing was for servants’ quarters, and has many bedrooms and quarters for
the family’s loyal servitors, such as Keestake.
Since there was no treasure here, the orcs and
goblins do not often come here, and Keestake
thinks this would be the best place to enter the
manor.
The “bar,” the cross-piece joining the west
wings to the east, was once a beautiful display
area, where Viledel had his library and his galleries and displays of art, most of which were
carried away 60 years ago. It’s possible that
there are some items of treasure here; it’s
likely that goblins and orcs will be encountered here.
The north-east wing was for manor administrative functions, and so there are many offices and records rooms here. It is possible that
here, too, the objects the goddess mentioned
can be found. Also, the hidden entrance to
the catacombs is here.
The south-east wing was for manor stores
and workshops — in other words, here are the
storerooms for all the food and supplies (now
empty or rotting), and the workshops where
clothes were woven and made, where leather
goods were created, food was prepared, and so
on. However, this area is where the goblins
typically enter the mansion to do their prowling and attacking.
Sneaking to the Manor
Assuming that the characters eventually do
decide to go to the manor (if they don’t, see
“When Things Go Wrong,” appendix 1), let
them choose how they intend to go about it.
Look at the DM’s map of the manor to familiarize yourself with its shape and layout.
Then, if the characters decide to get a look
at the manor before approaching it, let them.
They’ll probably want to observe it from the
summit of their hill or somewhere far enough
away that they will be safe.
If they do give it a look, relate the following:
The mansion, just as the old man described, is an “H”-shaped building, very
long and low. It seems to be built of granite. The exterior looks like it has stood up
to the elements better than the temple.
Unlike the temple, all the exterior windows have solid-looking, if rusty, iron bars
across them. It looks as though it was made
to be defended, though it’s no castle.
You can see the orcs and goblins at oppocite ends of the manor. There is a cluster of
orc-guards in front of the entrance to the
northwest wing, and a trickle of orc traffic
between there and the barracks, a little
north-west of the manor. There is a somewhat larger cluster of goblin-guards in
front of the entrance to the southeast
wing, and a corresponding trickle of goblin
traffic between there and the stables, a little to the south-east.
The terrain around the manor is rolling,
with great patches of grasses and weeds
and scrub growing all over. Keestake
points out another topographical
feature — a depression, some sort of little
ditch or break in the ground — which starts
a few hundred feet southwest of the manor
and runs almost to the southwest wing.
“That’s how I’d creep up on the thing,” he
says. “Along that ridge. We couldn’t go in
the door there, we’d be spotted in a second, but there’s a window on the west wall
near the south side where the bars are
loose. I ‘magine we can get in there.”
Peculiar Behavior of the
Orcs and Goblins
It’s likely that the characters will, at some
point, evidence confusion at the odd behavior
of the orcs and goblins. Why on Earth don’t
they settle their differences in a civilized
manner — by mounting an all-out war, one
side annihilating the other and then picking
the mansion clean at its leisure?
That’s a reasonable question. If the characters do become curious, inform them—
courtesy of any character with sailor skill, or
the character with the highest Wisdom — that
this seems to be part of the code of the pirates
of the Korinn Archipelago.
Pirates of the archipelago, when they meet
in a neutral area such as a free pirate port or
unclaimed territory, are not supposed to wage
true war on one another. Decades or centuries
ago, the rulers of neutral pirate ports made
this decree to quash the excessive pirate wars
and rumbles that tended to erupt in their
streets.
In neutral ports, pirates of differing crews
are allowed to participate in individual duels,
to defend themselves if attacked, and to attack if someone is stealing from them. Often,
this decree is circumvented by pirates who
only claim to have been attacked or robbed
but, in general, the custom keeps neutral pirate ports more peaceful than they would be
otherwise.
Obviously, what the orcs and goblins are
doing is keeping to the letter of the law. Each
side has claimed the manor and its goods, and
has set about exploring it.
Whenever they see an enemy prowling
around in “their” territory, or — even worse—
carting goods off from the manor, they consider it “stealing,” draw their weapons, and
attack. The end result is a war of skirmishes.
The armies keep well apart, and the real battles are fought by the scouts prowling through
the manor.
19
Getting Into the Manor
Let the characters decide how they intend to
get into the manor; be sure to repay cleverness
with appropriate success.
Some ways to get into the manor:
Keestake’s Recommendation
The characters can creep down the hill to
the end of the little depression which Keestake thinks should be their approach to the
manor. If the characters try this approach, let
them get to the start of the depression without
incident; then, as they progress along the ravine, have them make Move Silently rolls a
quarter of the way along, half the way along,
three-quarters of the way along, and finally
just before they reach the west wall of the manor.
If any character blows a Move Silently roll
tremendously — for example, by rolling an 80
or higher — have a single, incurious Orc guard
investigate. He moves in the general direction
of the noise, certain it’s some wild animal but
professionally inquisitive anyway.
This can let you play the classic movie scene
where the characters freeze in the underbrush
as the brooding guard walks around, mere
inches from them; perhaps they’ll decide they
must assassinate the guard silently before he
can spot them; perhaps they’ll panic and attack, and then have to make a run for the manor before the other orc guards by the
southeast entrance can reach them.
If they don’t panic and decide not to attack,
let them all make Move Silently rolls again. If
all roll below an 80, the none-too-curious
guard does not spot them. If anyone rolls
above an 80, the guard hears that character
shifting in his hiding place and slowly walks
over to investigate — perhaps leading to the attack or assassination attempt, as mentioned
above. Should the player characters let him
get to the noisy character without attacking
him, he spots the character and grabs him,
making a commotion to attract his allies,
which probably will lead to one of the outcomes listed above.
Incidentally, if you simply wish to give the
characters a harrowing encounter, spring this
orc guard situation on them even if they make
their Move Silently rolls. Explain that they
would have had a whole nest of orcs down on
them if they hadn’t made their rolls successfully.
If the characters make it to the end of the
depression, which is only a few feet from the
manor wall, Keestake creeps over to the window of Room 18, where the frame of bars is
loose. He pulls it loose and crawls in, or allows
the characters to precede him, whichever they
prefer.
20
Orc guard: AC 10; HD 1 (hp 6); MV 7”; #AT
1; Dmg 1-8/ 1-8 (battle axe), 1-4/ 1-3 (dagger); THAC0 20; AL LE.
Equipment: battle axe, dagger.
Distraction and Rush
The characters might think to cause some
sort of distraction and then rush for an entrance while the guards watch the distraction.
This should work, provided the characters are
sensible about it. Setting a fire in the underbrush near the manor will draw some of the
guards away to investigate, and holds the attention of all guards left behind.
However, the characters will be disappointed if they expect their distraction to draw
all the guards away from one of the guarded
entrances. No matter what sort of distraction
takes place, three guards will remain in front
of the guarded entrances — three goblins before the door to the northwest wing, three orcs
before the door to the southeast wing.
Pure Stealth
The characters might choose to approach
the manor by relying purely on stealth and the
natural cover of the area. This is dangerous,
but certainly allows them to choose between
entering at the southwest entrance, the northeast entrance, or the unbarred window to
Room 18.
Because of the natural cover and the
guards’ typical disinterest, the characters’
chance to remain unnoticed while approaching is 60%, rolled four times by each
character—once one-quarter of the way to
their objective, once halfway, once threequarters of the way, and finally when almost
upon their objective.
If a roll is failed, or if you wish to do so, you
can give the characters an encounter with a
guard such as the one described previously.
Prowling the Manor
Once the characters are within, from whatever entrance, they may begin prowling
through the manor. Obviously, they’re not
strong enough to confront a large, heavilyarmed band of orcs or goblins. However, by
carefully sneaking, ambushing unsuspecting
enemies, and other stratagems, the characters
should be able to explore much or all of the
manor, find what they may of the treasures
left there, and make it mostly intact to the entrance to the catacombs.
The manor’s windows are all barred. A successful “Lift Gates/Bend Bars” roll allows a
character to tear the bars off a window, but
this makes a lot of noise—enough for orcs and
goblins nearby to hear and come running.
The manor is not utterly dark; light spills
through the windows into all the rooms, and
the corridors have enough residual light filtering in so that characters can see as if they were
in a standard dungeon and carrying torches.
If anyone is curious as to how the Sea King
and followers could think that the manor
could be defended, with all its windows and
doors, tell them the answer: Occasionally,
rulers rely more on the might of their navies
than on their fortifications. You see this sort of
half-hearted defensive construction when the
ruler never really expects enemies to make it to
his front door. In the case of the Sea King, this
confidence was obviously unwarranted.
Northwest Wing
1. Exit
The door here is of solid wood. The bars
used to barricade the door are long broken
and lost.
Outside the door, three orcs — one with an
axe and two with bardiches — stand guard,
concentrating their attentions on the grounds,
not on the door.
2. Corridor
The corridor here is lined with dusty,
cracked wood panels; tattered cloth indicates
it was once hung with tapestries and drapes.
This particular wing housed the royal family of Viledel, and so doors lead to various
rooms and suites which were once lavishly furnished and richly decorated.
3, 4. Majordomo and Chief Scribe
These two rooms were bedrooms of chief
servants of the Sea King; 3 housed his majordomo, the man who administered this manor,
and 4 housed his chief scribe and correspondent.
Both are similarly decorated — polished
wood floors (marred by axe-blows from
searching orcs), beds, chairs, and couches
faded and made dusty by the years, broken up
and scattered about.
If the characters spend any time prowling
around in 3, they can find a signet ring showing a leaping dolphin, which Keestake angrily
tries to snatch away from them, claiming it
was the Sea King’s seal. (It was, and if the
characters bring it intact back to the world, it
is worth 1,000 gp to collectors.)
If the characters search around in 4, they find
several ancient and crumbly documents, written
in Common: records of items in storage, profit/
loss statements, etc. If they take the time to look
at each surviving piece of paper (there are about
30), one is found to be different from the rest—
beautifully hand-lettered, with a single paragraph scribed upon it.
It’s a clerical scroll with one spell — hold
person. A character reading its heading and
the first few words realizes what it is and has
the deep-rooted confidence that he can read it
and use it — exactly as was promised by the
goddess. The character can use the scroll as if
he were a 1st level cleric
Naturally, if the characters already have the
wand of magic detection, it leads them
straight to the scroll. It will not detect the signet, which is not magical.
5, 6. Princes’ Quarters
These two rooms were decorated and furnished even more lavishly than 3 and 4, with
woven rugs (now moldy) on the floor, tatters
of tapestries on the walls, delicate, intricate,
and thorougly smashed furniture all over the
floor. As usual, there are axe-cuts and other
signs of orcish investigation everywhere.
7. Queen’s Quarters
This suite consists of two rooms — the sitting
room, which has the door opening onto the
corridor, and the bedroom, which opens only
onto the sitting room.
The sitting room once featured carpets and
wall hangings like the princes’ rooms, though
substantially richer before the years of neglect
and decay. As is normal for this manor, the
walls show the signs of orcish investigation—
walls chopped on, floorboards pried up, etc.
The bedroom once featured a four-poster
bed, a settee with an actual glass mirror (now
in shards all over the room), and a terra-cotta
bathtub behind a screen; the bathtub is
painted with fish and squids and rays and
other sea-life, and is cracked into several large
pieces.
When the player characters get into the sitting room, have them all make rolls to Hear
Noise as if they were listening at doors (i.e., a
1 on 1d6). If anyone succeeds, he hears the
low, muttered conversation of the goblins in
the sitting room.
If the characters decide to take a quiet peek
through the slightly ajar door, they see a small
party of goblins giving some attention to a
small piece of decorated wood — an unadorned crimson wand. Yes, the goblins have
finally found and investigated the very wand
that the player characters will probably want.
How many goblins are there? Base that on
the number and status of the player characters. For every player character who is armed
and in good shape to engage in combat (i.e.,
armored, retaining most or all of his hit
points, etc.), include one goblin opponent.
Hero characters who are non-combative in
character, or who have few hit points left, or
are otherwise of marginal use in combat don’t
earn the party any extra opponents. Melisana
and Keestake don’t earn the party any extra
enemies, for instance, but might be able to
help their friends.
Goblins with spears: AC 10; HD 1 (hp 3); MV
6”; #AT 1; Dmg 1-6/1-8 (spear), 1-4/1-3
(dagger); THAC0 20; AL LE.
Equipment: spear, dagger.
8. King’s Quarters
This suite of three rooms once housed Viledel, the Sea King, and so Keestake is naturally
solemn and reverential while he is here.
Like the quarters of the queen, these chambers are decorated in once-beautiful decay
The room whose door leads to the hallway is
the suite’s antechamber, filled with broken sofas which once accommodated nobles awaiting the king’s pleasure.
The next room into the suite is the king’s
sitting room, which features a broken desk,
smashed chairs, and particularly badly
hacked-up walls. The hacking and smashing is
especially fierce in this room, more so than in
any other in this wing; if questioned, Keestake reluctantly admits that the orcs had the
idea that there was treasure to be found here.
There is indeed treasure here: A secret compartment in one of the surviving large pieces
of desk. If the characters prowl through the
large remaining pieces of desk, and someone
makes his roll to detect a secret door, he finds
the secret panel which opens the compartment. If the characters have the wand of
magic detection, the compartment is a cinch
to find. The compartment holds a dagger and
a small, blue, glass flask, stoppered and
sealed.
The dagger is shiny, showing no sign of rust
after all these years — a clear clue to its special
nature. It is a good double-edged fightingstyle dagger with a black stone hilt inlaid in
gold in the design of cresting waves. It’s actually a dagger + 2, + 3 vs. creatures larger than
man-sized.
The contents of the flask, should a character
risk a taste-test, make the character feel as if
he’s swelling with power—it’s a potion of
super-heroism. (Viledel, no fool, kept a backup weapon and a magical bonus to his fighting ability near at hand—attacked in his
quarters, he would’ve had the potion and the
magical dagger to use. Obviously, he never got
the chance to use them in the final sack of the
manor.)
The third and most interior room is the Sea
King’s bedroom, also decorated in modern
decay style. It features smashed tables,
smashed four-poster bed, and ruined floor
planking and wall paneling.
Southwest Wing
9. Entrances
Two doors lead into this wing: The north
door into 2 and the south door leading outside. Both doors are of solid wood and still on
their hinges, but as usual with the manor the
locks are broken.
10. Corridor
This corridor, unlike the bright and cheerful corridor of 2, has darker and cruder wallpaneling, brackets for torches instead of for
lamps, and rough finishing overall —
obviously an area for servants.
11 - 17. Upper Servants’ Quarters
These smallish rooms seem to have only
enough broken furniture in them to accomodate one or two persons—they appear to
have been the rooms for married servants.
18. Keestake’s Entrance
This room has the window with the loose
bars. It’s a dormitory-type room; numerous
broken cots and storage chests litter the floor.
19. Keestake’s Quarters
This is the room where Keestake has lived
for the last 60 years. If the characters get near
it during their exploration of the manor—
which is automatically the case if they entered
the manor through room (18) or through the
southwest entrance—Keestake wants to see it;
he hasn’t seen it since he was captured.
It’s a mess. The furniture he had taken to
his choice room and kept up all these years is
recently destroyed and picked through, including his bed, his chest of drawers, his tables, his chairs. He complains and moans
loudly until told to shut up by the characters.
20-23. Dormitory Quarters
These chambers, like 18, were once
dormitory-style quarters for the servants of the
manor. Now, like 18, they’re just ruins.
The Bar
24. The Hallway
This hallway, like 2, was once a richly
appointed passageway leading to the large
general-use rooms along it. As the characters
should expect, it’s a ruin now.
Here’s an optional encounter to use if your
characters need a little more excitement.
When exploring this hallway, when the characters reach a point between rooms 26 and 29,
a party of orcs emerging from the hallway at
31 enters this corridor — the party of orcs
two-thirds the size of the characters’ party.
Practically simultaneously, a party of goblins
rounds the corner from 2; the party is equal in
size with that of the characters. (None of the
three parties is surprised.) This puts the characters in a fix, as they’re trapped between
these two forces.
If they use their heads, they’ll be in no danger. All they need to do is remember that
21
these two forces are enemies, and get out of
the way — duck into one of the nearby rooms,
and wait until the fireworks settle. If they do,
after about a minute the goblins will all be
dead and two injured orcs remain.
Should the characters foolishly decide to
duke it out, the orcs and goblins are similar in
composition to those found in Episode Two.
Orcs with bardiches: AC 10; HD 1 (hp 1); MV
9”; #AT 1; Dmg 2-8/3-12 (bardiche), 1-4/
1-3 (dagger); THAC0 20; AL LE.
Equipment: bardiche, dagger.
Orcs with axes: AC 10; HD 1 (hp 2); MV 9" ;
#AT 1; Dmg 1-8/1-8 (battle axe), 1-4/1-3
(dagger); THAC0 20; AL LE.
Equipment: axe, dagger.
25. Study
This room had once been a study. There is
the moldy remains of a rug on the floor, three
smashed desks, and two ruined tables. A
small door behind a moldy tapestry leads into
the antechamber of 8.
26. Library
Breathing is difficult in this room because
of the thickness of the mold growing here. In
the room are toppled bookshelves and masses
of rotting paper and leather covers—hundreds
of books, all absolutely ruined. Not one is in
good enough shape to recover.
On the cast wall is a large (8 feet tall, floor
to ceiling) wooden plaque, only slightly damaged by pirate and on weapons; it’s a piece of
relief sculpture showing a harpooner (full size)
drawing back his weapon to release at a distant
whale. The plaque has been pulled bodily
from the wall, presumably by those searching
for secret doors, and leaned against the wall.
If the characters take the time to really look
over the plaque, they find something strange:
the harpoon the figure is holding is a separate
piece, inlaid into the wood of the plaque but
easily removable. It’s been painted to look like
part of the plaque, but it isn’t. The harpoonhead is false and drops off if the harpoon is
handled, revealing the golden hue of the
weapon beneath.
It’s actually a javelin of lightning, another
of Viledel’s last-ditch weapons hidden in the
surroundings. It’s especially easy to find if the
characters use the wand of magic detection.
27. Board Room
This chamber contains little furniture: one
massive oaken table, still standing and little
damaged, and the ruins of about 20 wooden
chairs.
28. Chapel
This chamber is a chapel dedicated to the
goddess, easily recognized by the plastered
22
walls and pertinent frescoes, just like those the
characters found at the temple. There are
wooden benches here, mostly in good shape.
There has been some careful prying and
searching, but the chapel has not been outraged as the temple was. Evidently the orcs
were not so ambitious when they found the
manor. When they later went crazy and defiled the temple, they were frightened by the
onslaught of the storm and decided not to
subject the chapel to the same treatment—
proving that orcs have some modicum of intelligence.
29. Gallery
This room contains only the ruins of some
picture frames. Once upon a time it housed
Viledel’s collection of art, but it was all taken
away by the pirates 60 years ago.
30. Lesser Dining Room
This chamber, like 27, has a large table still
standing within it, and benches enough to accomodate about 40 people. Keestake, if
asked, explains that it was the secondary dining room, used when there were too many
guests for the main dining room to accommodate.
Southeast Wing
31. Hallway
This hallway is functionally identical to 10.
Keestake can assure the player characters that
there’s nothing of value to be found in this
wing; if they choose to investigate, that’s fine.
This is the wing by which goblins enter the
manor, so you can give the characters a random goblin encounter if they really wish to investigate this wing.
32. Kitchen
This kitchen, similar in style and arrangement to the one in the temple of the goddess,
has lightly damaged tables lining the walls
and two giant recessed hearths. A double door
leads out to the hallway, and a secondary door
leads to the meat storeroom at 33.
33. Meat Storeroom
Like its equivalent in the temple of the goddess, this heavily-walled chamber has meathanging hooks and is otherwise empty.
34. Weavers
This workroom contains the remains of several looms. Many drop-spindles and spinning
wheels are also to be found, all of negligible
value.
35. Leatherworkers
This chamber contains only broken tables,
porcelain vats, small wooden mallets, and
some moldy scrap leather. Keestake, if asked,
can identify that this was where the manor’s
leather goods were made. Any character with
the secondary skills armorer or leatherworker
can identify the room’s function.
36-46. Dry Goods Storerooms
These chambers are filled with rubbish and
chests of moldy garbage that once was dry
goods, grains, cloth, pottery, etc. There is
nothing of value to be found here.
47. Exit
Outside this heavy oak door (with its barbracers and crossbar miraculously intact, but
currently unused) are stationed five goblin
guards, who pay no attention to the door behind them unless they hear it open.
Northeast Wing
48. Dining Hall
In this chamber are enough heavy oaken tables and heavy wooden chairs to accomodate
60 guests in grand comfort. The leather padding on the chairs is all eaten away by time,
and some of the chairs have been smashed,
but the chamber itself is in fair enough shape,
compared to the rest of the manor.
49-51. Scribe and Record Rooms
These chambers, all essentially identical,
feature two broken desks, numerous broken
chairs, and shelving units which feature small
trays filled with mold and scraps of paper. It
was here that the scribes administered Viledel’s empire, and the trays once contained
manor records and foreign correspondence.
52. Scribe and Record Room
This chamber is identical to 49 through 51,
with one significant difference: It’s here,
Keestake says, that the entrance to the catacombs is, under one of the bookcases on the
north wall. All anyone has to do is press a button atop the bookcase, above the average
character’s (or orc’s or goblin’s) line of sight.
Keestake says it’s been nearly 20 years since
he’s been down below.
When the characters try to utilize the mechanism, they can press the button — but nothing happens. No grinding noise, no bookcase
swinging open, nothing.
Let the characters have time enough to ponder this unexpected complication. Keestake
has the following information (which he volunteers is no one asks):
If the bookcase is pried away from the wall,
it reveals the shaft leading down. That will
take some time and make a lot of noise, unfortunately.
However, there’s machinery at the bottom
of the shaft which should seal the shaft behind
them. It’s not delicate, secret machinery like
the device that was supposed to swing the
bookcase open.
The characters have to decide if and how
they want to handle the opening of the bookcase. When they decide to do so, proceed to
“Descent to the Catacombs,” below.
53. Official Visitors
This room was once a lushly-appointed
waiting room: sofas, chairs, carpets, desks,
and hangings were designed for official visitors checking in with the chief scribe on duty,
making appointments to see the Sea King,
etc. It’s one of the rooms most thoroughly
sacked in the efforts to find treasure, so there’s
nothing but a fairly homogeneous mass of ruined furniture and cloth in the room now.
54. Waiting Room
This room, originally arranged much like
53, was for visitors awaiting the Sea King’s
pleasure. It’s now in much the same state as
53.
55-58. General Offices
These rooms were used as offices for various
of Viledel’s administrators. They are now
characterized by the gouged walls, smashed
expensive furniture, and other signs of orcish
treasure-hunting.
59. Exit
This is a solid oak door like those at 1, 9,
and 47. Unlike the others, this one is completely intact and has been left barred from
within. Someone outside, attempting to force
it, would have to make his “Open Doors” roll
which, of course, makes a lot of noise.
Use of Random Encounters
If the characters are remaining too unruffled, too undamaged, and too successful in
their search of the manor, you may wish to
drop some “random encounters” on them
Of course, there are parties of orcs and goblins
prowling through the manor. If you want the
give the characters some more danger and excitement, bring them into conflict with the
other prowlers in the manor. Some ways to go
about it:
Discovered By Small Party. The characters
can be discovered by a small party of either
orcs or goblins. This is likely to lead to a
straightforward fight to the death in the hallways.
Hiding From Large Party. The characters
can be spotted (at a distance) by, or simply
have to hide from, a large party; of either orcs
or goblins which is prowling from room to
room. This should take place in terrain where
the characters can have some opportunity to
24
hide—for instance, the various series of adjoining rooms, or storage chambers where
there’s plenty of decaying trash to hide beneath.
Caught In a Rumble. The characters can become caught between two opposing forces, as
described at 24. Perhaps this time they won’t
have the option to just duck into the nearest
chamber and wait out the action; they may
have to fight the two forces as the goblins and
orcs fight one another as well.
In any case, don’t confront the player characters with enough enemies to annihilate
them unless there’s some way for the characters to use local terrain or their brains to extricate them from the bad situation.
Orc Commanders: AC 8; HD 1 (hp 6); MV
9”; #AT 1; Dmg 2-8/3-12 (bardiche), 1-4/
1-3 (dagger); THAC0 20; AL LE.
Equipment: bardiche, dagger, padded armor.
Orc with bardiche: AC 10; HD 1 (hp 3); MV
9” ; #AT 1; Dmg 2-8/3-12 (bardiche), 1-4/
1-3 (dagger); THAC0 20; AL LE.
Equipment: bardiche, dagger.
Orc with axe: AC 10; HD 1 (hp 4); MV 9”;
#AT 1; Dmg 1-8/ 1-8 (battle axe), 1-4/ 1-3
(dagger); THAC0 20; AL LE.
Equipment: battle axe, dagger.
Goblin Commander: AC 8; HD 1 (hp 2); MV
6” ; #AT 1; Dmg 1-6/1-8 (spear), 1-6/ 1-6
(bow), 1-4/1-3 (dagger); THAC0 20; AL
LE.
Equipment: spear, dagger, leather armor.
Goblin with spear: AC 10; HD 1 (hp 2); MV
6”; #AT 1; Dmg 1-6/ 1-8 (spear), 1-4/ 1-3
(dagger); THAC0 20; AL LE.
Equipment: spear, dagger.
Goblin archer: AC 10; HD 1 (hp 4); MV 6”;
#AT 1; Dmg 1-6/ 1-6 (bow), 1-4/ 1-3 (dagger); THAC0 20; AL LE.
Equipment: battle axe, dagger.
Noise and Reinforcements
In reference to the encounters notes above,
you may wish to bring in wandering orcs and
goblins when the characters are doing something particularly noisy, such as fighting, or
(perhaps the most fun for you) when they’re
prying the bookcase from the wall in 52.
Follow the advice given above about confronting the characters with enough enemies
to challenge them but not enough to annihilate them. This adventure should be constant,
slow drain on the strength of the player characters. Beyond this point, if they lose any
members from their party, there can be no replacements, as discussed in “When Things
Go Wrong.”
Treasures Found in the Manor
Be sure that the characters note on their
character sheets or on a central scratch-sheet
every treasure they take, win, or are assigned.
This is especially necessary when you’re calculating their experience points for this episode.
Keestake and the Treasures
If any characters state that they’re watching
Keestake (to gauge his reactions) while they’re
acquiring loot from the various rooms, tell
them that he becomes quiet and subdued
whenever they pick up an object.
Should they ask him why he reacts with less
than glee whenever they find something that
may save their lives, he says, “I just don’t
much care to see the goods of himself gathered up like shells on the beach. They belong
here. I understand it, though. You’ll get no
trouble from me.” He won’t meet their eyes
when making his claim.
Descent to the Catacombs
To descend into the catacombs, the characters must pry the bookcase off the wall to reveal the descent shaft. There are enough
chunks of wood lying around to accomplish
this task. The characters simply have to figure
out exactly how they want to do it: slow or
fast.
Slow means they carefully and quietly (or as
quietly as possible) pry the bookcase off. Fast
means they insert their pry-sticks and wrench
as hard and fast as they can, so they can descend the shaft before anything can catch up
to them.
When they’ve made their choice, let them
pry the bookcase from the wall.
Fast means it takes one combat round to
move the bookcase. It makes a tremendous
grinding noise as it’s pried loose from the wall
and another tremendous crash as it falls to the
floor. (Should a character try to stop it from
falling, have him make his Open Doors roll. If
he fails, it falls anyway, on top of him, causing
1-6 points of damage. If multiple characters
are trying to stop it, have each roll; if all fail,
damage is divided between them. If they succeed, they can lower it safely to the floor, but
the first noise was still quite enough to startle
birds a quarter mile away.)
Slow means it takes a full turn (one minute)
to pry the bookcase from the wall. The characters can safely lower it to the floor with no real
danger. Each ten-second round, you should
roll 1d6. On a 1, goblins somewhere in the
southeast wing have heard the noise and come
to investigate. They arrive 2d6 turns after they
hear the noise, two goblins for each three
characters. This may lead to characters fighting a delaying action at the doors while their
allies finish moving the bookcase and begin
descending the shaft; this is all very appropriate, heroic, and cinematic.
When moved, the bookcase reveals a small
shaft, 2 feet wide and 2 feet long. The shaft is
lined with bricks. Small steel staples, somewhat rusted, act as rungs for descending. Two
characters can enter the shaft every combat
round, descending at a rate of 10 feet per combat round (60 feet per turn).
Where the characters end up is discussed in
the next episode.
On the Passage of Time
Considering that the characters only have
until nightfall to escape the island, they’re
probably going to be very interested in how
much time they have remaining.
The day is about 12 hours from sunup to
sundown. That’s their time limit.
Observing the manor, then laboriously
creeping down the hill and entering the
manor—or setting up a good diversion—takes
about two hours. That leaves 10 hours.
Each wing of the manor they explore takes
about an hour. If they just walk down the hallway and don’t explore, that’s effectively no
time. But if they do a room-to-room search,
that takes an hour. Figured into that time is
the actual searching, plus the time it takes to
move quietly in a manor filled with enemies.
Once they’ve entered the manor and done
all the searching they’re going to, and descend the shaft to the catacombs, note how
much time they spent topside and tell them
how much time they have left.
Don’t tell them how the time they’ve spent
breaks down, because they probably will argue. (They’d argue if you told them it only
takes five minutes to climb down a hill and
two to search a wing; they’d want to do the
hill in three and each room in one.)
Experience and Character Class
Experience for Treasure
As mentioned, the gold piece value of
mundane treasures found in the manor is negligible, with the exception of the seal of the
Sea King. Don’t assign any experience for that
yet.
Experience for the various items of magical
treasure found is awarded to the character who
ends up with the object. Experience for the
wand of magic detection, however, is divided
among the entire party.
The worth of the magical items is:
Potion of Super-Heroism
Wand of Magic Detection
Scroll of Hold Person
Javelin of Lightning
Dagger +2
450
2500
200
250
250
Character Class Choice
Once experience is assigned, you’ll find
that some (or all) of the characters have
reached 1st level.
Individually (privately if possible), as described in the “Dungeon Master’s Introduction,” tell each character what you think his
class and alignment are, get his feedback, and
make your choice. Reroll hit points if appropriate (and adjust the new number to reflect
damage the character has taken to this
point—if he had a total of 6 hit points before
and had taken 3 points of damage, and you
now determine he has 8 hit points, he’s still
taken 3 points of damage). You now have
some 1st level characters.
If some of the characters who have technically reached 1st level have not demonstrated
a leaning toward one class or another and tell
you they haven’t yet made up their minds, let
them stay at 0 level a while, but no longer
than the end of Episode Five. At that time,
every character must take his class and alignment unless he has not yet earned enough experience points to do so.
It’s your choice whether you want to assign
experience at this point—because when you
do, characters will begin reaching 0 and
higher experience point totals and will be
ready to choose their character classes.
Make your decision this way. If over half the
party seems to have made a decision (purposely or inadvertently) as to their character
classes and alignments, assign experience at
this point. If half the party or less has not
made such a decision, wait until about halfway into the next episode before assigning the
experience.
Experience for Monsters
For each orc or goblin, give the party 12 xp.
Divide the experience among the characters
who actually fought the monsters.
25
Now we enter the climactic episodes of the adventure. The player characters think they can
smell both treasure and imminent escape.
They’re right, but these things are not being
given to them on a silver platter.
Players’ Map
Should the characters have asked Keestake
for a map of the catacombs at any time before
“Keestake Loses His Mind,” below, he draws
them one. Fold the module cover to show
them the players’ map of the catacombs.
However, they’ll eventually find the map is
no good—erroneous and even dangerous—
for reasons to be discussed below.
low-toned and evidently quite sane, but what
he’s saying should come to sound more and
more sinister to the player characters.
While the characters go about their initial
explorations, he begins — he can either address the whole party, or just one sympathetic
character, whichever is easier for you.
You’re in a dank chamber with rough stone
walls and a damp, oppressive atmosphere.
This large chamber seems to have been
partitioned off into three storerooms, each
piled high with crates and jars; each storage area is about 20 feet broad and 40 feet
deep, and the areas are separated from one
another by walls of red brick.
To the south, a low shaft leads deeper
into the catacombs. There is no noise except for the distant drip of water, a faint
scurrying, and the burning of your torches.
Well, we made it. Knew we would. Haven’t been down here in a while.
Remember the worst trip I ever had to
make down here. Right after them first pirates left, 60 years ago. I had to do right by
my sovereign, don’t you think? I couldn’t
leave him lying there, hacked up and stripped down. Had to prepare him right and
fine for the afterworld.
So I hauled his body down here. Hard
work that was. Dressed it up in some
clothes and goods that the pirates missed.
Laid it in a crypt near his son. Hauled his
queen’s body down, laid it between her
husband and her son. That was grisly
work. I was sad. Never been so sad since.
Himself had a ring, something he’d
found adventuring. Made things happen,
if you just wished for it. But they’d
stabbed him in the back before he got a
chance to do any wishing.
I took it off him and prayed that they’d
never decay, they’d always be in one piece
when it was time for the dead to rise up for
the afterlife. Knew I’d done right; it always seemed his eyes followed me after
that. Year after year after that, he never decayed. He’s in as good a shape now as he
ever was, likely. Don’t know for sure. Haven’t been down here in a while.
You need to get used to your quarters,
you know. You’re going to be down here a
piece. You’re not leaving, you know. No
more so than me.
Y’see, I really couldn’t let you wander
off with the Sea King’s treasures and pretties. Can’t let you profane the tomb of his
son. What kind o’ servant would I be if I
let that happen?
I wanted to get down here and shut up
that shaft when the orcs first landed, but
they got me. You’ve done me a favor. Got
me down here so that I could shut it off.
Sorry to say you won’t be leaving. You’re
not going to find the entrance to the
tombs.
Going to die here, like me. Say, that’s a
pretty good idea.
It’s here that Keestake appears to lose his
mind. Actually, he’s been quite mad all this
time, but he’s only now achieved all his goals
and is quite willing to discuss them with the
player characters. His conversation starts out
Naturally, you don’t want to simply recite
that monologue. As soon as the characters
start comprehending that something’s wrong,
they may interrupt with questions. Let them;
he’s perfectly willing to answer.
Keestake Loses His Mind
The characters, descending into the catacombs, eventually reach point 1 on the catacombs map. Once all the characters who will
be descending have reached that point, the
characters hear the clanging of the rungs and
the goblinish (or orcish) cursing that indicates
they are being pursued.
Keestake pulls a lever attached to the wall at
point 2. (If the characters try to prevent this,
he explains that it seals the shaft and prevents
the pursuers from ever descending.)
Once the lever is pulled, a tremendous
crash resounds from overhead and the sounds
of descent change momentarily to screams,
and then to silence. Then a tremendous cloud
of dust rushes out of the shaft and a hail of
medium to large rocks crashes to the bottom
of the shaft. (If any character was standing at
the bottom of the shaft, have him make a saving throw vs. magic. If it fails, he suffers 2d6
points of damage damage before he can throw
himself out of the way.)
Finally, a solemn silence descends over the
chamber. Let the characters know what their
surroundings are like.
26
Yes, he’s lured them down here so he could
seal up the shaft so they could all die so no
one, not even the orcs or goblins, could get
the treasure and profane the tombs.
Improvise the monologue around his
speech and their reactions and questions;
make it as natural and reactive as possible.
And, assuming the player characters let the
loon get to the end of his speech, he decides to
speed up the process of their dying down here.
Keestake whips a concealed dagger out of
his tattered robes and attacks the nearest
player character. At this point, he’s completely lost his mind. He won’t calm down; he
has to be killed or subdued
If Keestake is Already Dead
If Keestake is already dead, or simply never
encountered by the player characters, they
won’t have even that hint that not everything
is kosher in these catacombs. More’s the pity,
and the danger to them.
The Catacombs
Take a good look at the DM’s Map and the
Players’ Map of the catacombs. You’ll notice
that they’re different, more so than just the
old man’s lousy scribbling can account for.
The old man has drawn some bogus details
into the players’ map. He’s listed a couple of
things — specifically the “Good Weapons &
Armor” and “Go-Slow Hallway” — precisely so
that the characters will go there; these areas
are, in fact, dangerous traps.
And he’s totally misdrawn and mislabeled
the map in regards to the last chamber (Room
12 on your map) and the entrance to the
crypts, which is actually buried in the rubbish
at the back of Room 8.
He’s rigged up several traps in these catacombs over the course of the years, traps designed to inconvenience, injure, and kill
anyone (other than himself) prowling around
in the catacombs. This is part of the danger
that the characters face down here.
Chamber by chamber, here are details on
the catacombs.
1. Entry Point
This is where the lower end of the descent
shaft emerges, about 60 feet below the manor.
As mentioned, the air is dank but reasonably
fresh; the walls are crudely hacked out of bedrock. Rungs, rusty but still strong, have been
stapled into the rock and lead up all the way to
the room of the concealed entrance. (This
shaft is bedrock for 30 feet and brick-lined for
30 feet above that.)
2. Shaft Mechanism
This is simply a large iron lever on the wall
immediately to the side of the shaft opening.
The lever, if pulled, releases an ingenious series of weights arrayed in a hidden shaft which
parallels the entry shaft. About 30 feet up,
these weights cause a great mass of stones and
bricks to collapse into the entry shaft, effectively blocking it.
That’s the theory, anyway. The reality is that
the mechanism, while still working, is not as
effective as it was meant to be. The collapse of
stones sounds and appears impressive, but it’s
not the impenetrable wall of stone the designers had envisioned
Given several hours of work, the orcs or
goblins topside will be able to claw and pry
the blockage out of the way—a circumstance
which will soon distress the player characters.
3. Grain Bins
This room contains great wooden bins
which still contain a residue of the grains
which once they held. The grains were long
ago eaten up by Keestake and the giant rats in
area 9. The wood is damp and rotted, and
shows signs of chewing from large rodent
teeth. Still, a smoky flame can be coaxed out
of it if the characters need more wood for fires
and torches.
4. Cloth and Leather Stores
This chamber contains many decayed bolts
of cloth, mostly utilitarian linen and wool,
and hanging masses of mold that once were
animal hides (the characters can’t tell what
sort of animal it was, probably sheep or pigs).
None of this stuff can be used as cloth, although the linen can be used to make adequate torch wrappings. It can’t be used to
fashion ropes
ally were only piled up in a wall designed to
collapse; the room is empty beyond the fallen
wall of crates.
6. Trip wire Mine Collapse Trap
Characters coming within visual range of
area 6 see a rotted tapestry hanging across the
hallway, at the line indicated. Once it’s moved
away/whipped away/carefully checked out
for traps and then cautiously removed, the
characters see another like it, 20 feet further
down the passage.
This one, however, is trapped, as a Spot
Trap roll may reveal. If the trap is not spotted
and disarmed, and the second tapestry is
moved, it tugs another steel wire leading to
counterweights further down the hallway and
the counterweights yank out the hallway’s
supports.
Just as with chamber 5, anyone in the area
between the two tapestries must make a saving throw vs. death. This time, a successful
roll means the character has leaped out of the
way and takes no damage. A failed roll means
the character takes 1d6 points of damage from
falling timbers and bricks. And a badly failed
roll (a roll of 5 or less) means the character suffers 2d6 points of damage from falling timbers and bricks.
The collapse does not block the hallway,
however, and the rubble can be clambered
across with little difficulty once it has all
fallen.
7. Second Chamber Series
This chamber is functionally identical to
the previous one, though the chamber contents are different.
5. Keestake’s Collapsing Trap
8. Stores and Secret Door
This chamber, falsely labelled “Good
Weapons & Armor” on the map drawn by
Keestake, is really a trap. In the chamber,
piled haphazardly almost to the ceiling, are
great wooden crates. The crates appear to fill
the chamber from front to back and from side
to side
There’s a good steel wire stretched from
wall to wall at ankle level just inside the opening to the chamber. A character must make a
Spot Traps roll to notice it. If he fails to notice
it, he trips it when moving into the room.
If the wire is tripped, it causes the top part
of the pile of crates—which are, incidentally,
loaded with bricks taken from the piles in area
16—to tumble down on all characters within
that chamber. This is dangerous and painful.
Each character must make a saving throw vs.
death. Failing it, he takes 2d6 points of damage from the deadly crates. If he makes it, the
damage is only 1d6.
Once the damage is assessed and the dust is
cleared, it becomes evident that the crates re-
This chamber is piled, front to back, with
dirt-filled, rubbish-filled, and earth-filled
crates. It’s thoroughly disinteresting — except
for the fact that the secret door leading to the
crypt of the Sea King is to be found at the back
of the chamber.
To find the secret door, the characters have
to laboriously move crates aside and then
make an ordinary roll to spot secret doors. The
door itself opens easily; to spot the secret door
is to spot the miscolored rock which, when
turned, causes the door to grate open, leading
to area 14.
If a character asks if it’s peculiar for someone to spend so much time loading crates with
useless, heavy, and tiresome materials such as
these, you should tell him yes, but provide no
commentary as to what it means.
9. Stores and Giant Rats
This chamber is identical to except that
there is no secret door and there is a nest of giant rats living here among the crates.
Casual viewing of the chamber does not allow the characters to spot the rats. If they begin moving crates aside, however, the rats
attack.
Giant Rats (5): AC 7; HD ½ (hp 3); MV 12” ;
#AT 1; Dmg 1-3; AL N(E).
The rats chitter and swarm over the characters moving the crates. As described in the
Monster Manual, they are afraid of fire; they
can, however, attack a character with a torch,
as long as he is only holding it and not wielding it against them.
If the characters retreat, the rats return to
their chests and glare balefully at the characters. They will not flee from the chamber, and
must be killed if the characters are to be rid of
them.
10. Well
This chamber is empty except for the circular, stone-lined well set into the floor and the
bucket and winch apparatus erected above it.
The well shaft is sunk into the self-same underground river which provides the excitement at area 11. The characters can hear water
rushing far below If they choose to use the apparatus to fetch a drink, they must make a
rope of their own, as this rope is rotted beyond
use; if they do lower the bucket for water, the
shaft depth seems to be about 40 feet.
If a character happens to jump or fall into
the well, handle it as if he’d just fallen into
the trap at 11.
11. Underground River Trap
This part of the hallway, enigmatically
marked “Go-Slow Hallway,” has a laid stone
floor which looks a bit buckled and sagging.
If the characters do progress slowly across
the hallway, have each roll a saving throw vs.
death. Success means that nothing happens
Failure means that the floor collapses beneath the character, precipitating him down
the 40-foot shaft leading to the underground
river.
If a character falls, have him make three
saving throws vs. death, one right after another.
If he makes the first, he hits a ledge about
20 feet down, taking 1d6 points of damage.
He can’t move or turn over on the narrow
ledge, lest he fall in, but can grab at any rope
(or facsimile thereof) lowered to him and be
rescued.
If he fails the first but makes the second, he
hits a ledge about 35 feet down, taking 2d6
points of damage and finding himself in the
same predicament as if he’d hit the ledge
above.
If he fails both the first and second rolls but
makes the third, he hits the water and disappears from view. He won’t be seen again until
27
the end of Episode Six. He’s fallen into the
river, bruised and battered (1-3 points of damage), but will emerge into salt water where the
underground river hits the sea, about a hundred yards from area 22, on the outside.
If he fails all three rolls, he hits the water
and drowns before the underground river
pushes him out into the sea. He will never be
seen again.
If a character runs across the hallway (distrusting Keestake’s instructions) or keeps close
to the walls, he remains safe; the floor will not
collapse under him.
If the floor does collapse, a narrow (2-foot)
ledge remains on either side against the
walls — sufficient room, barely, for characters
to cross safely. The ledge is fairly sturdy—
though stones fall from it every time characters cross, it will not collapse.
12. Third Chamber Series
If the characters were given a map by Keestake, they swiftly realize that this chamber
bears no relationship to the one he drew.
This chamber was obviously set up to accomodate the family of the Sea King if they
had to hide away (Unfortunately, none of the
family made it this far 60 years ago.) The large
open area has had brick walls erected, dividing the chamber into ten 10 foot x 20 foot
chambers.
Each mini-chamber contains rotted cots
and chairs, but no treasure, furniture, or
weapons of worth.
13. Crossbow Room
This is one of the small rooms of area 12,
but Keestake has left a last present here—a
crossbow trap. Characters opening this door
need to make a spot traps roll to realize there’s
a wire attached to the inner side of the door.
If the door is opened, it trips the trap — a
crossbow lashed to a heavy chair facing the
door. The crossbow fires at the character in the
doorway as if it were a 1st level fighter, firing
vs. the character’s armor class.
The crossbow is a heavy arbalest with a steel
spring bow and a metal string. Even so, it has
been considerably weakened by 60 years of
rust and metal fatigue. If it hits, it causes 1-3
points of damage. If it is later used by the
characters, it still causes 1-3 points of damage.
There are no quarrels to be found here; the
characters must fashion their own.
That’s the catacombs. No entrance to the
promised crypt and treasure and boat is to be
seen. The characters must look for them, and
this will take time and effort.
Chambers 14-22 are laid out and detailed
in Episode Six: Break-In.
28
Fresh Air and Giant Rats
The characters may become curious as to
why the air is not horribly foul and unbreathable or why this series of catacombs can sustain
the life of a nest of giant rats, when no great
quantity of food seems to be present.
The answer is simple, but unhelpful. If the
characters ask about this, tell them that
they’ve seen small cracks here and there in the
walls and ceiling. The cracks are too small for
characters, even human babies, to progress
through, but are ample for giant rats. From
some of these cracks the characters can feel
moving air. They’re in no danger of suffocating, but this is one of the few things that currently poses them no danger.
On the Passage of Time
Once the characters have performed a preliminary investigation of the catacombs and
stumbled across the traps and creatures, they
must begin searching for the door out of here.
If they become discouraged, you can tell them
that Keestake had said that they’d never find
the crypt, which is ample evidence that there
is one, even if the old man was mostly cracked.
So the characters must search. Don’t let
them find the entrance immediately. It will
take time, hours even, to slowly move the
great crates away from the two rooms where
they’re piled, assuming that the characters
even start there.
Meanwhile, back on the surface, there are
developments of which the characters are unaware. The orcs and goblins have discovered
the shaft leading down into places unknown.
They know that neither side can dig through
that blockade if the other is attacking and harassing them.
Therefore, the leaders cement a quick
truce. Hostilities are called off until the chambers below are reached and plundered. Once
all the treasures are removed, a contest of
champions, the best fighters of the orcs and
goblins, will decide which side gets the treasures. It’s a measure of the desperation that
both sides are feeling that they’re willing to
cooperate. The player characters should feel
just as desperate when they learn that this cooperation is taking place.
At any rate, while the characters are busy
looking for the entrance to the crypt, they
gradually become aware of faint noises coming from the entrance shaft. It’s a faint
pounding noise, and occasionally small stones
come clattering down to the bottom of the
shaft.
But as time passes, the noise becomes
louder and louder, and more and more stones
come clattering down.
Time this to match the characters’ progress
in the search. If they’re getting close to their
goal, have the orc/goblin digging progress
quickly. If they’re “cold.” the digging above is
still unsuccessful, though it is gradually increasing in volume.
Eventually, the characters will find the secret door. At almost the same moment that
they swing it open, there is a loud crash from
the shaft, and a great quantity of stone tumbles tumbling down. The faint voices from
above, orc and goblin mixed, indicate that the
goblins and orcs can’t get down yet, but it’s
only a matter of time — not much time.
On to Episode Six
Once the characters have found the entrance to area 14 and the orcs and goblins have
started to break through. it’s time to progress
on to Episode Six.
If the Characters Don’t Find the
Secret Door
Should the characters fail to find the secret
door, look at Appendix 1. “When Things Go
Wrong.”
Experience
There’s not too much experience to be
gained down here.
Keestake is worth 16 experience points
Each rat is worth 10.
Choosing Character Classes
In spite of the fact that there wasn’t much
experience to earn here, characters may have
to choose character classes now—either the little earned was enough to put them to 0, or
they’d earned enough earlier but hadn’t yet
developed sufficiently to choose their character classes.
It’s time now. Any player who has not yet
chosen a character class and alignment, but
who has reached 0 experience points, must
choose his character’s class and alignment. Let
him do his character revisions in the moments
while everyone is discussing the oncoming
goblins/orcs and marveling at the newlyopened door. Then progress on to Episode Six.
By this point in the adventure, the player
characters have discovered the entrance to the
crypt, and have discovered that the orcs and
goblins they’d left behind are not so far behind after all. In the climax to Treasure Hunt,
they must survive the dangers that lie behind
and before them and escape the island before
its final destruction.
The Current Time
The characters have been underground
quite long enough to have lost any real track
of time. They know that it’s hours after they
descended; they also know it must not be
nightfall yet, or they would be dead. But they
have no way of knowing how much time is left
until nightfall, and the urgency of their mission should be weighing heavily on them.
The Crypt
Here are pertinent details on the crypt, as
the characters find it:
14. Corridor Begins
The secret door at 8 opens inward into a
rough-hewn tunnel cut out of stone. The air
of the tunnel is danker and less wholesome
than that of the catacombs, but it is not completely foul.
If the characters choose, they can pile up
crates in front of the secret door before closing
it. This should camouflage it and keep it from
being discovered as quickly as it might.
The corridor, after only a few feet, makes a
turn southeast and runs straight for hundreds
of feet — 450 feet, if the characters take the
time and effort to pace it out. Along its
course, it slowly rises; dwarf characters think
that it gains about 30 feet of altitude by the
time it ends.
15. Corridor Ends.
The corridor makes a final bend to the
south and then opens into area 16.
16. Crypt Chamber
This is an enormous chamber, with a partially smooth and partially rough-hewn floor,
and rough-hewn walls, not less than 90 feet by
80 feet, plus several chambers in a niche to the
east. A dwarf or a character with the mining
secondary skill, after examining the walls and
floor, can tell that it was once a natural cave
but has been artificially widened by men. The
craftsmanship is too crude for dwarves, far too
sophisticated for orcs or other, lesser semihumans
One section of the south wall (21) is smooth
stone; dwarf or miner characters can tell that
it’s an artificial wall erected within an
artificially-widened opening — perhaps the
exit?
The contents of areas 17, 18, and 19 are visible to characters in area 16. The existence of
chamber 20 is obvious, but it is bricked up
and out of sight.
17. Empty Crypt
This crypt is identical to 18 and 19 except
that the northern wall is rough, not brick, and
it’s completely empty.
18. Viledel’s Crypt
This chamber is 30 feet deep and 20 feet
wide, with rough stone on the east wall and
brick walls north and south.
In the exact center of it, laid out on an upraised slab of stone, is the body of a man bedecked in rich blue garments (not tattered)
and dulled scale mail, with a mace laid out beside his right hand and a golden coronet on his
brow.
Roughly carved in the front of the slab is the
inscription:
Viledel
Sea King
Tamed the Islands
Laid Low by Pirates
Unknown to the characters, it was carved by
Keestake, 60 years ago, when he was still
young and grieving for his slain sovereign.
The flesh of Viledel is not decayed, as Keestake predicted. It is pallid, with bruises and
cuts still showing vividly. though the blood in
the cuts is brown, not red. His eyes are open,
but do not move.
When the characters move close enough to
get a good look at Viledel, see “Royal Greetings,” following.
19. Queen Liala’s Crypt
Laid out in fashion identical to Viledel is his
lady wife.
She looks about 40 years old and would be
attractive, but she is (understandably) cold
and pallid in death, with one great brown
stain in the chest of her once-lustrous green
robe; her hair is blonde and shining, her eyes
open and still as they contemplate the ceiling.
Keestake’s crude inscription on the front of
her slab reads:
Queen Liala
Laid Low by Pirates
Rests Beside the Sea King
Again, if the player characters come near to
her — within 30 feet — or near to her husband,
see “Royal Greetings,” following.
20. Prince Horedel’s Crypt
This crypt, of course, was set up long before
the destruction visited on the island; it is a
proper tomb. The body of Prince Horedel is
within a solid brick wall. On the front wall,
facing into area 16, is a bronze plaque, professionally engraved (not like the crude inscriptions made by Keestake):
Here lies Prince Horedel
Brought Down by Illness
In the Twentieth Year of Viledel’s Reign
Within those walls is the boat designed to
carry the prince away when the dead are raised
by the gods. The boat is:
Small galley
Hull value 7
30 feet long, 8 feet wide
6-9 mph under sail, 5-8 mph under oars
The sail, oiled and bound, is in fair shape
and is sea-worthy; the oars are sound; the hull
seems to be sound, and is.
Dead Prince Horedel, wrapped up in the
linen dressing of the dead, lies in the center of
the boat. He’s surrounded by grave goods:
plates and goblets and forks and spoons and
knives of gold and silver, a set of ordinary
chain mail, bastard sword, dagger, and small
chests of coins — about 600 gp in the chests.
The arms and armor are richly made and inlaid, but otherwise are perfectly normal objects.
21. Sliding Exit
At the south end of the chamber is the way
out—an artificial wall, constructed with another ingenious device like that at area 2.
When the lever to the right of the exit is
pulled, there is a great crashing sound and the
entire artificial wall breaks apart into its component stones and tumbles forward into...
122. The Ocean
Yes, immediately beyond area 21 is the
ocean. The instant the exit of 21 is opened, a
great blast of cold wind and rain crashes into
the chamber—fresh air, but it’s almost dark.
See “Launching,” following.
Royal Greetings
Once the player characters approach within
30 feet of either Viledel or his queen, both—
as the players might expect—sit up.
Yes, Viledel’s ring, now long lost, was a ring
of wishes, and the imprecise, agonized, and
foolish prayer that Keestake poured into it 60
years ago made the Sea King and his lady into
something other than human.
In effect, both the Sea King and his lady are
zombies, even though they are not rotting
and inelegant like normal zombies.
Viledel: AC 5 ; HD 2 (hp 10); MV 6” ; THAC0
15; #AT 1; Dmg 2-9; AL N.
Liala: AC 8; HD 2 (hp 6); MV 6” ; THAC0 16;
#AT 1; Dmg 1-8; AL N.
29
Having risen, they appropriately move out
among their new guests and try to kill them—
Viledel with his mace, Liala with her undead
strength. Though the characters may not realize it, the Sea King and his queen are the final
real obstacle to their escape from the island.
Viledel and Liala fight until destroyed, and
then the characters can set about the final
preparations for their escape.
Getting At the Boat
To get at the boat, the characters have first
to break through the brick wall.
The brick wall effectively has AC 0 — even
though a character can be presumed to hit it
automatically with every blow, only those
blows rolled with “to hit” numbers sufficient
to hit AC 0 cause damage.
Pounding-type weapons — clubs, staves,
maces, etc. — cause normal damage. All other
weapons cause only half damage.
30
Forty points of damage create a man-sized
hole into the chamber, and another 40 points
widen it sufficiently to get the boat out. The
characters will doubtless want to check out the
boat and its cargo — just in case the bonny
prince decides to sit up and take action. (He
doesn’t.)
Timing the Finale
If everything goes right, the finale should
work out something like this:
The player characters enter chamber 16 and
begin prowling around. When they get close
enough to the king and queen, those worthy
individuals get up and attempt to murder
them.
Once that combat is concluded, the player
characters set about opening the exit and
breaking through the wall to the prince’s
crypt. This takes a while. The sky gets darker
and the wind gets louder outside.
Once the hole is open wide enough, the
characters have to slowly and laboriously drag
the heavy galley out through the hole and get
it to the mouth of the chamber.
But we’ve forgotten the element of pursuit.
How close are the orcs and goblins on their
tail?
Determine this by gauging how damaged
and tired the characters are. If they are still
fairly undamaged and now possess new arms
and armor, have a mixed party of orcs and
goblins burst into the chamber just as the heroes are starting to get the boat into position.
Provide two enemies for every three player
characters — this will give the characters the
option of ganging up on their enemies, or
keeping the odds even and using the remaining heroes to launch the boat.
If the characters are tired and damaged, in
spite of their new goodies, let them launch the
boat, clamber in, and begin rowing. In fact,
let them get about 20 yards out on the roiling
water before the orcs and goblins — a huge
force — come bursting in. They launch a flight
of arrows at the heroes, which stick in the
mast, oars, benches — even the characters on
especially good rolls, but it would be bad
sportsmanship to kill a player character at this
point in the adventure.
Destruction of the Island
As the characters row away from the island,
they’ll be tossed and buffeted by the mounting fury of the winds and waves, enough so
that the sailor characters may become worried
about their chances for survival.
But they’ll be able to see that things are
even worse on the island.
The sky overhead is completely covered in
storm clouds, but you can still see the
island — it seems to be lit by a faint glow,
enough for you to see what’s going on
As you watch, tornados — 10 or 12, at
least — descend from the heavy mantle of
clouds cloaking the sky. The tornados begin tearing along the island and stripping
great tracts of territory up into the air.
Hurricane-force winds are scouring the
island, and from your vantage point you
can see the ruins of the town, plus the manor, barracks, and stable, begin to disintegrate, being thrown plank by plank and
beam by beam into the air.
The orc and goblin boats on the beaches
are being driven up onto the beach, torn
apart by the winds and battering seas. You
can dimly see their crews running, scattering, some of them being thrown like leaves
up against the cliff side, others swept out
to sea by the waves.
By the time you’re a quarter of a mile
out to sea, the rocking and pitching of your
own boat begins to subside — it no longer
threatens to throw you overboard. But
things are worse, not better, back on the island, which seems strangely obscured now,
covered from shore to shore by a graybrown whirlwind of of rocks and scrub brush
and sand and sea which seems to scour the
island.
And that’s just what happens: by the
time you’re a mile away, the whirlwind lifts
and the island is gray-white and smooth,
resembling not at all the island you landed
upon yesterday. There’s not one hill, not
one topographical feature that you remember. And, suddenly, the seas around
you are still, the clouds overhead clear, and
the stars and moon can be seen overhead.
goblins are slain, and the player characters—
no longer a party of innocent prisoners, now a
trimmer band of adventurers — is free to sail
wherever they wish.
Epilogue
Let the characters row and sail where they
wish, over the next few days. They may wish to
make for the nearest large, semi-civilized port
(Dennik), sell their galley, and go their separate ways. Perhaps they’ll stay together and
sail the seas as an adventuring party.
Cash Value of the Last Chamber
You can assess the cash value of the items removed from the crypt of the Sea King as follows:
The expensive dinnerware: 1,000 gp total.
The prince’s arms and armor:
chain mail: 150 gp
shield: 30 gp
bastard sword: 75 gp
dagger: 5 gp
The chest of gold: 600 gp
Viledel’s coronet: 500 gp
The Prince’s galley: 10,000 gp
Experience Value of Magical Items
The characters who end up with these items
receive the experience total value for the
items
Viledel’s Goods;
scale mail + 1: 500 xp
mace +1: 150 xp
Cash Value of Saved Treasures
If the characters saved some of the items
found earlier in the adventure, they are
worth
Experience
Assign experience as follows:
for the zombies: 88 points
for each slain orc or goblin: 13 points
Add up the experience for the monsters
slain and divide it equally among the players
who participated in their death.
Add up the gold piece value of the last
chamber; that becomes the experience point
total to divide among all characters who made
it alive out of that chamber.
The characters who ended up with the mace
and scale mail get the experience point values
for them, as listed above.
Gold
Korinn Archipelago custom is that all survivors of such an expedition equally split the
gold value of the treasure haul. If the characters don’t wish to do this, let them work it out
among themselves. Whatever the case, the
home port of each character, unless the characters think to keep these things very secret, demands a salvage tax of 25 percent on all the
gold they bring out of the island of Viledel — a
slight diminishment to their glory, but not
one that will affect the stories told about their
adventure.
That’s the end of the adventure. The characters have experience, wealth, companions,
and a whopping story to tell at the inn. Some
of them, after the last batch of experience
from the treasure haul, probably have additional experience levels as well.
If you wish to continue adventures in the
Korinn Archipelago with these characters,
Appendix 2 has some helpful information
along those lines.
Seal of the Sea King: 1,000 gp
Map showing location of Westhaven on Pandira island: 500 gp (to authorities)
The Reward for Melisana
Melisana, if she makes it back to Ventris Island, is true to her word and wheedles a reward out of her father: 2,000 gp.
Unless otherwise persuaded, Melisana returns to her original plan of taking over her father’s business when he retires. A particularly
persuasive or romantic character interested in
her could convince her to remain with the
other characters. In either case, though, when
she achieves her 1st level, she becomes a
priestess (cleric) of the goddess.
That’s the end of the Treasure Hunt. The
goddess has had her vengeance, the orcs and
31
Character Death
Treasure Hunt is not specifically designed to
kill player characters. That’s contrary to the
point: we’re trying to launch such characters
on their adventuring careers, not cut them
short. But it wouldn’t be an adventure if there
were no danger, and so the characters can die.
It’s possible to bring in new player characters when the “first batch” starts dying off.
Here’s how:
Before the adventure began, of course, all
the PCs were captives aboard the slave boat.
Two groups of prisoners were taken topside to
row against the storm. The second group of
about seven, seeing its chance, killed the pirates on guard and, before the remaining pirates could recapture them, seized and fled in
the ship’s lifeboat.
That boat later broke apart on the reefs at
the southeast tip of the island, and the characters managed to make it alive to the coast —
but they were scattered and had no idea where
anyone else was.
Therefore, when you need a new player
character, have the player create the new character and then introduce the character at the
place most appropriate to the episode currently being played. For instance:
Episode One. If a character dies in the
action against Hafkris, introduce the new
character at the end of this episode, as the
characters are leaving the confines of the cove.
He stumbles into their midst in much the
same shape they are.
Alternately, if the characters were recaptured by Hafkris and one or more were killed,
the “new” PCs could have observed the fight
from the cliff top and could wait until Hafkris
goes off on his scouting mission, then descend
and rescue the other characters. They can all
then depart for Episode Two.
Episode Two: If a character dies in the
action against the orc/goblin forces, the surviving characters can stumble across the new
ones on the trail toward the temple.
Episode Three: If characters perish in the
fight with the ghoul, the new player characters can be found the next morning. Assume
they found the temple independently and
crawled in through a rear window, arriving after the other player characters had already returned to sleep. They slept in the first
chamber they entered, and so wouldn’t be
discovered until the next morning. At that
time, one party (DM choice) should hear the
other begin moving around and investigate.
Alternately, if you prefer that the players
wait a while, wait until the early parts of Episode Four. Let the first party of orcs or goblins
that the characters encounter have in tow
some human prisoners, coincidentally the
new player characters, who were captured by
32
them on the coast last night.
Episode Four: If characters perish in the
search for the manor, this is the last time you
can provide replacements without stretching
credulity way too far.
The new player characters can have been
captured last night by orcs or goblins, and so
be left tied up somewhere while their captors
are prowling the manor. (Why would they
bring them into the manor? Doubtless they
feel that these humans are inhabitants of the
island and can show them the secrets of the
manor.)
Or, the new PCs could have found the manor by themselves last night, crept in, and
rested there, then been trapped in place by
the marauding bands of semihumans until
the other player characters arrive. Don’t make
them roll to enter the manor, as the active
player characters had to do. Describe last
night’s action as a fait accompli and then
launch them into their first meeting (today)
with the surviving original player characters.
Episodes Five and Six: Once the characters
have descended the shaft into the catacombs.
it’s too late to replace any who die.
Maximum Numbers and Final Notes
There were only seven prisoners taken up in
that second batch of rowers. Therefore, if for
some reason you have seven deaths in the
course of the adventure, that’s the limit on
replacements — no more player characters can
be replaced.
Naturally, all these former fellow prisoners
will recognize one another when they set eyes
on each other.
Episode Problems
Here are some of the episode-by-episode
problem situations that can arise:
One: Characters Don’t Try to Escape
It’s certainly possible, though incomprehensible, that the player characters will not try
to escape Hafkris and the prison galley.
At this point you have to monkey with the
“script” somewhat. An hour or so after
Hafkris leaves to go about his scouting (don’t
forget to give each character a point of damage
for cold and exposure), a party of orcs appears.
These orcs are scouts, and the same group that
has Keestake in tow.
The orcs take the player characters captive
(if they wouldn’t fight Hafkris, they’re not
likely to resist six well-armed orcs) and head
back to the barracks.
En route, however, they are attacked by a
goblin party—yes, the same goblin party they
were to fight in Episode Two, in the same little
ravine, though the forces’ positions are reversed.
If the players are finally ready to show more
backbone, let them wriggle out of their bonds
while the orcs and goblins are engaged. They
can run away while the fight is going on or, if
they’re so inclined, fight the surviving goblins
(same survivors as indicated in Episode Two)
If they just lie there passively while the fight
is going on, have the two sides annihilate one
another, the last orc and the last goblin killing
one another with their final blows. Now, the
characters have the option of eventually wriggling out of their bonds, or freezing to death
here. You can only hope that they decide to escape and that they show a little more creativity
in the next episode.
One: Hafkris Survives, Captured
If the characters capture Hafkris alive, they
can either leave him behind when they depart
the boat or bring him along.
If they leave him behind, he eventually escapes from his bonds — 1d6 hours later. At
that point he comes after the characters. Look
at “Hafkris Survives, Uncaptured,” below.
If the characters take him along, he goes,
apparently peaceably. He bides his time,
working unobtrusively on his bonds. Once
they’re loose enough that he can pull his
hands free anytime he likes (3d6 hours later),
he chooses the worst possible moment (from
the player characters’ point of view) to make
his escape: in the middle of the ghoul attack
or the next day while the characters are creeping around silently in the mansion, for example.
Hafkris either bolts and runs or, if the opportunity presents itself, grabs the nearest
convenient weapons and tries to recapture the
player characters. After all, that’s his job.
You should consider springing this incident
especially if the characters are breezing
through the manor exploration too easily.
One: Hafkris Survives, Uncaptured
This takes place if the player characters just
ran away while Hafkris wasn’t looking or if
Hafkris left them in the hold to scout and they
escaped later.
As you might expect, he comes after them,
slowly and methodically tracking them. He’s
no ranger, and the weather isn’t conducive to
tracking activities, so give him a 1 in 6 chance
of actually following the PCs’ footprints.
If he can’t follow them, he looks for shelter.
This inevitably brings him to the temple. If
you wish, you can substitute Hafkris for the
ghoul in the wee hours’ excitement of Episode
Three.
Two: Characters Don’t Recover Keestake
The characters might passively watch the
orcs and goblins slug things out and then see
the goblins depart with the old man.
If that happens and the characters don’t
follow the goblins, then Keestake escapes his
captors late in the night and goes to the temple for shelter.
Two: Characters Don’t Go to the Temple
The characters might, for any number of
none-too-intelligent reasons, decide not to go
to the temple. Let’s face facts; they’re either
going to die of exposure, or let themselves be
captured by the orcs or goblins, or go to the
temple. These things are unavoidable.
However, if the characters just blithely continue their explorations, let the goddess step
in to take a hand. You can decide that she saw
the player characters’ ship when it crashed on
the island and she is curious about the humans, as she was in the normal course of Episode Three. Have her use her totem animal or
some other magical manifestation to lead the
characters to her temple—perhaps a speaking
animal with promises of warmth and food.
It could be that they characters refuse even
then. (These suppositions are getting more
and more unlikely, but they’re still faintly
possible.) If this happens, use the brute force
approach: have the goddess appear before the
characters and speak with them wherever they
happen to be. If Keestake isn’t with them,
you might choose to just drop him out of the
plot for the time being (have him return to the
catacombs to lock the characters in for Episodes Five and Six). Have the goddess grant
the characters the information about the impending scouring of the island, and of the
presence of the boat and treasures in the catacombs beneath the manor. She knows where
the entrance to the catacombs is, and will tell
the PCs.
Three: Characters Choose to Seize
Orc or Goblin Ship
There’s the chance that the characters, even
when they know about the treasure and the
boat in the catacombs, will decide to leave the
dangerous manor alone and try something
else, like finding and seizing one of the boats
belonging either to the orcs or goblins and
sailing home in that.
There, are two ways to deal with this approach: brute strength and abandonment.
In the brute strength approach, you double
or triple or quadruple the guard left on the
boats. There’s no way the characters can defeat
the force there or successfully steal a boat.
(Unless, of course, they come up with a plan
so magnificently clever that you’re
overwhelmed — in which case you ought to
follow the next paragraph’s advice.)
In the abandonment approach, you let the
characters figure out how they’re going to do
this, and if their plan succeeds, they have a
boat and can sail away. Basically, you abandon
the whole sub-plot of the manor and the catacombs and all that lies within them. However,
what you can do at this point is construct a
whole new continuation of the adventure,
where one boat of orcs or goblins vengefully
pursues the player characters, who have to
outrun and elude their enemies at every opportunity, hopping from island to island,
grabbing rations wherever possible, in an exciting chase to safety. Since that sub-plot is beyond the scope of this adventure, you’re on
your own to create it.
Three: Characters Build a Raft
This won’t work. If they work on a raft from
dawn of that second morning, they could finish just before nightfall and launch on the
ocean. But it won’t be a very good raft, built
on crumbling building planks or furniture.
Any character with the sailor skill, including
Melisana, can tell the other characters that it’s
dangerous enough to launch in this weather in
a good ship—launching a raft is just foolish.
If they launch anyway, the raft sinks. You
simply can’t protect characters from their own
determined foolishness. If the characters survive the sinking and swim back to the island,
they do so just in time to be on it when the
goddess scours it. And that’s the end of them.
Four: Characters Captured by
Goblins or Orcs
If the characters are captured while prowling through the manor—or even before they
reach the manor—you can abandon most of
the events of Episodes Five and Six. The characters are taken to and imprisoned in the barracks or stables (depending on who captured
them). You have to improvise on their layouts,
because no maps are provided for them in this
adventure. Once you’ve settled the characters
in their new captivity, give the characters the
appropriate opportunity to escape. But make
them sweat the details, figuring out how to
get out of their bonds, sneak past or kill their
guards, etc. Make sure that the whole
process—being captured, tied, interrogated,
imprisoned, and then escaping—takes up
huge amounts of time, so that by the time
they escape there’s barely an hour of daylight
left. At this point, the characters can try one of
the two following finales to the adventure.
The characters can try to sneak aboard one
of their captors’ ships, launch, and escape.
They have to go through the same rigmarole
described above for this process.
The characters can try to sneak into the manor once again, get to the room of the descent
shaft, and get down to the catacombs. Ignore
the traps laid in by Keestake, consider the secret panel to the crypt to be open, and have
the crypt of the son unbricked and easily plundered. But, the characters are pursued every
step of the way by angry orcs and goblins, the
mechanism that blocks up the shaft doesn’t
work, time is running out, and the zombies
are active and ready to provide one last impediment to the characters escape plans. This option will provide the characters a fast-moving
and movie-like climax to their adventure.
Five: Characters Never Find
Crypt Entrance
If the characters haven’t found the crypt entrance by the end of their explorations, begin
Episode Six by having the zombies open the
entrance from within and march out to destroy the characters.
General Troubleshooting
The problems listed above constitute only a
fraction of the ways that things can go contrary
to what is expected in this adventure. Player
characters are endlessly clever (or endlessly
thick-headed). So, whenever they do something that the adventure can’t cope with, you
have to “trouble-shoot” — fix the problem
and get the adventure going again.
Basically, when confronted with such a situation, call a break, get something to drink,
and try to figure out how to get the story back
on plot. If the characters have done something
that won’t allow the adventure to be played to
its plotted conclusion, then you throw the
plot away and come up with something new
and entertaining; don’t muscle the characters
back into a plot they’ve effectively wrecked
for that causes resentment and does not do
anyone any good.
33
The players may evidence curiosity about the
history and nature of their homelands. This is
fine — they can be expected to know a great
deal about their homes among the islands.
The following text will give you answers to
most of their questions and allow you to use
the Korinn Archipelago as the setting for future adventures, if you wish to.
History of the Archipelago
The Korinn archipelago was discovered
about 200 years ago by human settlers moving
into this part of the continent.
Those days were pioneer years, lawless and
rough. There was no central authority and
next to no trade. The pioneers of the islands
were simple, stubborn farmers and fishermen,
the same stock that inhabits the islands today.
Over the next century, these pioneers dug in
and established themselves firmly on the islands. Their populations increased to allow for
more trade, which led inevitably to the appearance of strong pirate bands in the region.
From 140 years ago to 100 years ago, the pirates reigned supreme in the waters of the archipelago.
Then, a century ago, an adventurer-noble
of the southern kingdom of Petathal led great
fleets of followers into the islands to set up colonies of their own. This man, by name Viledel, and his lady Liala had aspirations of
forging a strong maritime empire in the archipelago.
The headstrong Viledel chose one of the
westernmost and least hospitable of the islands as his base — a direct challenge to the pirate fleets that ruled the seas. By virtue of
superior seamanship and clever tactics, he was
able, over the next four decades, to diminish
the power of the pirate forces; to settle his followers all through the islands, mixing peacefully with the earlier century’s colonists; to set
up more trade routes; and to bring more and
more islands under his sway. In his fortieth
year of rule, Viledel was known as the Sea
King, the only man in these waters powerful
enough to carry that title.
However, a retaliatory attack by a pirate
kingdom ended Viledel’s aspirations. His island was overrun and ravaged. Its population
was (evidently) completely destroyed, and the
new domination of the western islands by pirates cut it off from the sea-routes so thoroughly that knowledge of its location was lost.
In the 60 years since, the colonies of the islands have thrived. Perhaps not as much as if
they were still part of an empire, but they have
nonetheless flourished.
The islands, independently governed, nevertheless cooperated in matters of trade, and
the population continued to grow. The pirates, still a strong force in the Archipelago,
34
nonetheless had to make their strongholds in
the lesser-trafficked western waters.
Races of the Islands
The original settlers of the islands were humans, but Viledel’s followers included demihumans as well. Most races flourish in
maritime environments: dwarven and gnome
craftsmen build fine ships, elves and halfelves are sailors at least equal to humans (and
have better vision), halflings make good traders, and all the world needs soldiers, the one
occupation to which half-orcs are most admirably suited.
The Islands in General
Throughout the archipelago, the islands
share some common features.
By and large, they are hilly and mountainous, with few good fields. Consequently,
there are not many farmers; there are many
fishermen, and herdsmen of goats, sheep, and
pigs.
Many wild herbs and spices grow here.
These, plus wool, linen, leathers, fish, pork,
and mutton, make up the primary goods exported and traded throughout the island.
The people are mostly simple fishermen
and herdsmen, hardened by weather and adversity. There are many traders, especially on
the larger islands and in the greater port cities,
which also feature many craftsmen and providers of luxury goods and services.
Guide to the Islands
The largest and most important islands of
the archipelago include:
Barret’s Quay: This is a smallish eastern island, noted for the taciturn nature of its inhabitants (almost all humans — a few dwarves,
no other races). It has no large port cities.
Caftenor: This is the most southern island
of any size, and one of the richest in terms of
fish catches and temperate weather. Quite a
few halflings live here among the humans,
and Caftenor is the most frequent stoppingoff port for ships bound between the southern
nations and the western islands.
Chawdik: This is a fairly poor eastern island, notable mainly for the very large gnome
population living on the south coast; it’s the
largest gnome community on the islands.
Dennik: Unfortunate Dennik is the western
frontier — any further west, and you’re in
pirate-controlled territory. This island actually
has few fishermen. The seaside villages are too
vulnerable to buccaneer raids. Most of the
population tends herds or grows spices in the
upland fields, trading with the eastern ships
when they put in. The population is almost
wholly human, though there are some half-
orcs living here.
Highport: This island is the greenest of all
the archipelago, mountainous and heavily
forested. It is a rich trading island with several
strong port cities and large elvish and halfelvish populations.
Jacaman: This island, smaller, uglier,
weaker, and more unfortunate than Dennik,
is still the archipelago’s chief producer of several exotic spices. There is a lot of risky trade
out to the island, and a lot of pirate interest in
the isle and the sea-routes leading to it.
Pandira: This western island was a notorious pirate haven in the days of the Sea King,
but has been abandoned and unoccupied
since a few years after the Sea King’s fall. (The
truth is that it hasn’t — a major pirate port,
Westhaven, has been set up here on the west
coast in the last few years — but no one knows
this . . . unless the player characters return from
the Sea King’s island with this information.)
Rabin’s Reef: This is another forested island, noted as the summering spot for
wealthy families, especially those from Ventris.
Tetris: Tetris isn’t shown on the map. This is
because it’s not thought to be anything, and
the players probably would look at the map
and want to know why Tetris has a name listed
if there’s nothing there. Well, the truth of the
matter is that Tetris is the southernmost island
of the island chain furthest south from Pandira. And the rest of the truth is that it is the
secret base of those goblin buccaneers, the
Sithisila Fleet. This is a fact the player characters can discover in the course of the adventure.
Ventris: This is the largest of the islands of
the archipelago, and the richest. It is characterized by high mountains, thick forests, and
several plains worthy of growing crops. The island is thick with demi-humans as well as humans and commands a good share of the
sea-trade that occurs in the archipelago.
Viledel: The island of the Sea King is also
not shown on the map — the characters don’t
know where it is, except that it’s supposed to
be far west, because its location has been lost.
For your DM information, it is the island due
north of Pandira.
The Archipelago and Existing
Campaigns
It’s not difficult to integrate the archipelago
into already-existing campaigns. Just plant
the island chain offshore at some remote point
on your existing game world, adjust the
names of the surrounding continental nations, and you have it made.
Use in Future Adventures
The archipelago, whether you’re using it as
your first adventure or using it as part of an extant campaign, can be the setting of future
adventures in your campaign. After all, the
player characters of Treasure Hunt needn’t dry
up and blow away once the adventure is done.
Archipelago adventures can take several
forms.
Characters and their ships can be hired to
explore the dangerous western waters, updat-
ing long-antiquated maps and reporting on
the positions and settlements of the pirate
kingdoms.
Because of the pirate presence, all but the
most easterly of trade-routes need to be protected; merchant ships typically carry numerous adventurers for protection.
There are occasional wars between the islands; one isle, jealous of its fishing or shipping territories, will launch an assault on
another, and soon the entire region can become embroiled in seaborne war. Alternately,
information about pirate ports (such as the information the player characters can bring out
of Treasure Hunt) may prompt a strong island,
such as Ventris, to launch a major offensive
against the thorn in its side.
In any of these cases, action is likely to be
mostly maritime: boarding actions, fleet engagements, etc. Bone up on the water combat
rules from the Dungeon Masters Guide and
give it a try. A little waterborne adventure may
be just what your campaign needs.
35
Following is a complete list of all monsters used throughout the adventure. Dungeon Masters should find this list useful when running encounters.
The boxes following each listing represent hit points. Keep track of each monster’s hit points by crossing off boxes as it is hit.
Episode One:
Monster
AC
HD
hp
MV
#AT
Dmg
Hafkris
6
1
8
9”
1
2-8/2-7
THAC0 AL
20
NE
Episode Two:
Monster
Orc Leader
Orc with bardiche
Orc with axe
Goblin with spear
Goblin with bow
AC HD hp MV #AT
8
10
10
10
10
1
1
1
1
1
6
3
4
2
4
9”
9”
9”
6”
6”
1
1
1
1
1
Dmg
2-8/3-12
2-8/3-12
1-8/1-8
1-6/1-8
1-6/1-6
THAC0 AL
20
20
20
20
20
LE
LE
LE
LE
LE
Episode Three:
Monster
AC HD hp MV #AT
Dmg
THAC0 AL
Orc Leader
Orc with bardiche
Orc with axe
Goblin leader
8
10
10
8
1
1
1
1
6
3
4
2
9”
9”
9”
6”
1
1
1
1
2-8/3-12
2-8/3-12
1-8/1-8
1-6/1-8
20
20
20
20
LE
LE
LE
LE
Goblin with spear
Goblin with bow
Ghoul
10
10
6
1
1
2
2
4
7
6”
6”
9”
1
1
3
1-6/1-8
1-6/1-6
1-3/1-3/1-6
20
20
16
LE
LE
CE
Episode Four:
Monster
Orc guard
Goblin with spear
Orc with bardiche
Orc with axe
Goblin with spear
Goblin with bow
Orc leader
Orc with bardiche
Orc with axe
Goblin leader
Goblin with spear
Goblin with bow
AC HD hp MV #AT
10
10
10
10
10
10
8
10
10
8
10
10
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
6
3
1
2
2
4
6
3
1
2
2
4
9”
6”
9”
9”
6”
6”
9”
9”
9”
6”
6”
6”
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
Dmg
1-8/1-8
1-6/1-8
2-8/3-12
1-8/1-8
1-6/1-8
1-6/1-6
2-8/3-12
2-8/3-12
1-8/1-8
1-6/1-8
1-6/1-8
1-6/1-6
THAC0 AL
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
LE
LE
LE
LE
LE
LE
LE
LE
LE
LE
LE
LE
Episode Five:
Monster
Giant Rats
AC HD hp MV #AT
7
½
3
12”
1
Dmg
1-3
THAC0 AL
20
N
Episode Six:
Monster
AC HD hp MV #AT
Viledel
Liala
Orc Leader
Orc with bardiche
Orc with axe
Goblin leader
Goblin with spear
Goblin with bow
5
8
8
10
10
8
10
10
36
2
2
1
1
1
1
1
1
10
6
6
3
4
2
2
4
6”
6”
9”
9”
9”
6”
6”
6”
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
Dmg
2-9
1-8
2-8/3-12
2-8/3-12
1-8/1-8
1-6/1-8
1-6/1-8
1-6/1-6
THAC0 AL
15
16
20
20
N
N
LE
LE
20
20
20
20
LE
LE
LE
LE